The carbohydrate metabolic profile can be used as a biomarker of productivity in Miscanthus

Coauthors: Anne L. Maddison, Anyela Camargo-Rodriguez, Sandra Pierre, Charlotte M. Jones, Iain S. Donnison

There is a global urgency to produce a sustainable source of biofuel without compromising soil health, food security or requiring the heavy use of agrochemicals.  Miscanthus and other perennial biomass crops can be a major part of the answer to this challenge but improvement through breeding programmes is hampered by the absence of molecular markers and the extended time duration to maturity when crosses can be screened.  In this study we report the identification of metabolic biomarkers of productivity in the C4 perennial, energy grass Miscanthus by correlating the carbohydrate composition (structural and non-structural) of multiple species and hybrids with yield traits.  Genes involved in carbohydrate biosynthesis and metabolism were identified and then screened for SNPs in a hybrid mapping family with the intention of correlating differences with variation in carbohydrate composition and biomass.  Our results show the predictive power of the carbohydrome and present the use of metabolic biomarkers as a tool for selection in perennial crop breeding programmes.