Biotech Updates

Delaying Floral Initiation Improves Biomass Yield and Reduces Lignin Content in Medicago truncatula

December 10, 2014
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12155-014-9565-y/fulltext.html

 A team led by Million Tadege and Kirankumar S. Mysore from The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation evaluated the effect of floral transition to biomass by manipulating flower onset in Medicago truncatula.

Three mutant M. truncatula lines with altered flowering time and fertility were used for the study. They were, a delayed flowering mutant named vernalization-insensitive delayed flowering in long days (VDF), a non-flowering stemless mutant named headless (HDL), and a male sterile mutant named medicago male sterile 1 (MMS1).

Analysis revealed that the VDF had the highest aboveground biomass while HDL had the lowest biomass at 70 days after germination. The difference in biomass between the VDF and wild-type became obvious after floral initiation of the wild-type at 90 days after germination. The VDF plants produced approximately twice the biomass than wild-type. Interestingly, VDF, HDL, and MMS1 produced significantly less lignin than wild-types.

Results suggest that delaying floral initiation could be a convenient tool to simultaneously improve biomass quantity and quality.