02/19/2014

Floating Water Weed Could Be Used as Biofuels Feedstock

Summary

Duckweed is one of the world’s smallest and fastest-growing flowering plants and can be a hard-to-control weed in ponds and small lakes. It shows great promise as a biofuel feedstock, however, and private companies are already exploring its use in fuel production. Researchers at Rutgers University, the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute, and several other facilities recently sequenced the complete genome of Greater Duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza) and analyzed it in comparison with several other plants, including rice and tomato. S. polyrhiza’s very small genome is missing many genes for plant maturation and production of cellulose and lignin but has more genes than comparable plants for starch production. Determining which genes produce desirable traits will allow researchers to create new varieties of duckweed with enhanced biofuel traits.

References

Wang, W., et al. 2014. “The Spirodela polyrhiza Genome Reveals Insights into Its Neotenous Reduction Fast Growth and Aquatic Lifestyle,” Nature Communications 5, 3311. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4311.