Scientists to Sequence Duckweed Genome

A group of scientists from Rutgers University is obsessed with duckweed, an aquatic species akin to the world’s smallest flowering plant. They are convinced with the duckweed’s potential for cleaning up wastes in the environment, sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and producing biofuels. The Rutgers researchers, together with colleagues from the Kyoto University, University of Jena and Oregon State University, have secured funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to sequence the plant’s genome.

Duckweed, according to researchers, has the ability to cleanse agricultural and municipal wastewater by accumulating nitrogen, phosphate and heavy metal pollutants. The plant is an ideal feedstock for biofuel production. Duckweed can produce biomass faster than any other flowering plant, and their carbohydrate content can readily be converted to fermentable sugars using widely available enzymes for corn-based ethanol production.

The complete article is available at http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2008/07/duckweed-genome-sequ-20080707