1,2†Samantha McGaughey, 1,3†Lily Chen, 3Hannah Osborne, 1Christopher Brown, 1Duc Quan Nguyen, 1Thi Thanh Mai Nguyen, 2Caitlin Byrt, 2Stephen Tyerman, 3Robert Furbank, 1Andrew Eamens and 1*Christopher Grof
1 Centre for Plant Science, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia 2308. *Email: Chris.Grof@newcastle.edu.au
2 ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, University of Adelaide, Australia 5064.
3 ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
†Equal contribution
In addition to its use in C4 photosynthesis research, the panicoid grass Setaria, represents a valuable model for investigation of biomass generation and sugar accumulation in biofuel feedstocks. The elongating internode of Setaria viridis is being used as a tool to investigate the molecular and physiological mechanisms involved in determining sugar storage capacity and cell wall deposition events during stem development. The elongating internode grows from an intercalary meristem at the base of the internode, and progresses acropetally towards fully expanded mature cells which store sugars. Along this gradient there is also a transition from synthesis of predominantly primary cell walls through to thicker secondary cell wall deposition. A transcriptome of the S. viridis elongating internode was recently published (Martin et al. 2016) and provides an opportunity to identify genes that are likely to be involved in sugar and biomass accumulation. From analysis of the elongating internode transcriptome we have identified candidate genes of interest, involved in cell expansion, sugar accumulation and secondary cell wall deposition. The current state of research in relation to select candidate genes will be presented.
Martin A P, Palmer W M, Brown C, Abel C, Lunn J E, Furbank R T, Grof C P L. 2016. A developing Setaria viridis internode: an experimental system for the study of biomass generation in a C4 model species. Biotechnology for Biofuels , 9, 45. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-016-0457-6.
