Breeding of Lignocellulosic Bioethanol Feedstock

Abstract

As sustainability becomes a pivotal issue worldwide, biofuel from plants has been highlighted as an alternative to energy from fossil fuels. In the current review, we focused on improving the efficiency of lignocellulosic bioethanol production from high dry matter-producing Miscanthus and switchgrass species by understanding these species’ genetic traits and responses to various stresses. The most recent findings regarding biomass quality and bioethanol conversion processes are discussed in this review, including goals of current feedstock breeding programs, followed by up-to-date genetics and genomics resources to provide optimal breeding approaches for Miscanthus and switchgrass species. We revisited previous breeding approaches using bmr mutations, ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), next generation sequencing (NGS), genome-wide association study (GWAS), and transgenic resources, which can be a basis for improving sustainable biomass and biofuel production through these two species. This review may provide background for researchers and breeders to further improve breeding approaches. © 2018, Korean Society of Crop Science and Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature.