Working first with the laboratory-friendly plant Arabidopsis and later with sugarcane, the team introduced genes that boost natural oil production in the plant.
Pauvre Bleue
They increased oil production in sugarcane stems to about 1.5 percent.
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"That doesn't sound like a lot, but at 1.5 percent, a sugarcane field in Florida would produce about 50 percent more oil per acre than a soybean field," Long said. "There's enough oil to make it worth harvesting."
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The team hopes to increase the oil content of sugarcane stems to about 20 percent, he said.
La colère pêches
Using genetic engineering, the researchers increased photosynthetic efficiency in sugarcane and sorghum by 30 percent, Long said. And to boost cold tolerance, researchers are crossing sugarcane with Miscanthus, a related perennial grass that can grow as far north as Canada. The new hybrid is more cold-tolerant than sugarcane, but further crosses are needed to restore the other attributes of sugarcane while preserving its cold-tolerance, Long said.
Soldier of Fortune
Ultimately, the team hopes to integrate all of these new attributes into sugarcane, he said.
Vivacité Bleue
"Our goal is to make sugarcane produce more oil, be more productive with more photosynthesis and be more cold-tolerant," he said.
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