Towards Predicting Yield Potential in the C4 Perennial Bioenergy Grass Miscanthus by use of Metabolic Biomarkers

Increasingly, there is a global necessity to produce and improve sustainable sources of biofuel through plant breeding programmes from crops that do not require heavy agrochemical inputs or compromise food security. Miscanthus, together with other perennial biomass crops, can be a major part of the answer to this challenge. Miscanthus is a giant perennial energy grass native to Eastern Asia. Currently it is mainly utilised for combustion, as a substitute for coal, but with the advancement of ligno-cellulosic fermentation technologies there is an interest in using Miscanthus as a sustainable feedstock for bioethanol. However, improvement to the crop through conventional breeding programmes is hampered by the extended time it takes for the progeny to reach maturity when crosses can be screened for desirable biomass traits.  Molecular marker technologies are being developed for Miscanthus but are still some years away from deployment.  Metabolic biomarkers are routinely used in medicine but are rarely used as a predictive tool in plant science.  The discovery of metabolic biomarkers that provide a means to screen new crosses for yield or quality traits could be of tremendous value to perennial breeding programmes.