Source: Ukragroconsult (Ukraine)
Researchers at the US Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have developed a new sorghum variety that can outperform soybeans for oil production and has great potential as a clean source of renewable fuel.
Scientists have long been working to develop new sustainable sources of plant oils, known as triacylglycerols (TAG), to meet the growing demand for renewable fuels, including sustainable jet fuel and renewable diesel.
Currently, oil palm and oilseeds, mainly soybeans, provide much of the feedstock for renewable fuel production, but these sources alone cannot meet the growing global demand. In addition, researchers are breeding high biomass crops, such as sorghum, for oil production.
In their new study published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal, CABBI scientists describe a technology for growing sorghum with high TAG content.
The researchers engineered the genetically engineered sorghum to accumulate up to 5.5% dry weight TAG in leaves and 3.5% dry weight in stems under field conditions – 78 and 58 times more than unmodified sorghum, respectively. This level of production can provide about 1.4 times more oil per hectare than soybeans, making it a promising new feedstock for renewable fuels.
“This work is the culmination of a large team effort that demonstrates how basic research can be used to develop new crop feedstocks to meet global energy needs,” said Edgar Cahoon, director of the Center for Crop Innovation at the University of Nebraska and one of the paper’s authors. Unlike the oil-rich seeds and fruits of plants such as oil palm and soybeans, TAGs typically accumulate only in the plant’s vegetative organs (leaves and stems) as a response to stress-induced membrane damage.
To engineer sorghum to accumulate plant oil, the team used a push-pull-protect strategy that CABBI has previously used to increase plant oil accumulation in other plants. The induced genes work to engage more carbon from photosynthesis in oil production, “pull” fatty acids into TAG molecules, and “protect” stored oil from decay.
Using advanced gene transfer techniques, CABBI scientists have bred sorghum lines that, when grown under field conditions, not only maintained stable oil production over multiple generations, but also avoided the biomass reduction observed in similar studies with other biomass crops.
These sorghum lines provide potential new feedstock sources for renewable fuels, reducing dependence on traditional oilseed crops and meeting the growing demand for renewable energy. Oil sorghum also has the potential to provide new sources of income and markets for farmers. Oil sorghum bioprocessing offers new ways to stimulate the bioeconomy and support rural viability. The research team will continue to explore ways to further increase oil yield to meet CABBI’s goal of growing crops with a TAG content of 10% on a dry weight basis.