Polyploid technology brings high yield energy crops

Earlier we reported on a new plant breeding technique based on metabolic profiling that allows scientists to select and clone high yield plants fast (earlier post). Now an Australian biotech company, BioFuelGenomics, is commercialising a plant cloning technique based on polyploidisation that allows plant breeders to constantly advance the normal growth rates of biomass crops by between 30% and 40% per annum. The technology enables the creation of adaptive polyploids or the spontaneous doubling of a plant’s genetic material. No genetic engineering is involved.

Polyploidisation is an evolutionary event that occurs naturally in plants, but until now has not been able to be replicated in the laboratory for plant species. Polyploids are cells or organisms that contain more than two copies of their chromosomes and that outperform their diploid parents (picture, click to enlarge).

Polyploids result in:

• faster growing trees;
• stronger trees;
• higher yielding trees and gigantism;
• decrease resources used by polyploided plants; and
• additional carbon absorption

The BioFuelGenomics adaptation process creates polyploids at will, however the groundbreaking part of this process is the ability to create adaptive polyploids, where entire gene clusters are rearranged in order to cope with specific environmental and physical conditions (genomic architecture).

The process involves the DNA profiling of elite mother stock trees and processing them through the tree adaptation process. The end result is a new plant with the same physical characteristics, yet significantly greater genetic material and therefore growth potential than the mother stock. BioFuelGenomics technology does not introduce foreign DNA and as such, adapted trees are not classified as genetically modified organisms:
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: plant breeding :: clonal :: genomics :: energy crops ::

As an illustration of the benefits over a 20 year period, an existing plantation may complete 3 rotations of trees for harvest. Using BiofuelGenomics technology the rotation can be increased to 5 turns in 20 years and the unit cost of production can be reduced significantly.

If this technology works in practise, it is set to revolutionise the producion of bioenergy based on fast-rotation crops.

BiofuelGenomics relies on a perfected laboratory application of the naturally occurring evolutionary event, i.e. the ability to consistently create stable polyploids (plants with duplicate sets of chromosomes), allowing accelerated plant growth. This technique was developed by Australian biotech company Arbour Technologies Pty Ltd on which BiofuelGenomics' "Tree Adaptation Process" is based.

The Tree Adaptation Process has now been completed for the following species: acacia crassicarpa, elaeocarpus grandis, paulownia fortunei, araucaria cunninghamii, pinus radiata, agathis robusta and toona ciliata. Arbour Technologies is currently working on the modification of biofuel plants for the biodiesel industry.

Polyploidy
A naturally occurring phenomenon, polyploidy generally occurs in pioneer plant species during times of environmental stress. Polyploids are found in most of our food crops, however due to the long reproductive cycle of tree crops natural polyploids are extremely rare.

Polyploids contain more chlorophyll, photosynthesise at a faster rate and therefore grow faster than conventional plants.

Much scientific work has been conducted to produce polyploid events, however to date, few polyploid events have resulted in "stable plants" (that is, they created the polyploid event using mutagens but the plants did not thrive). One of the best known and most commercially successful polyploid events was the creation of the seedless watermelon.

There are many examples of existing polyploids, particularly in the food category, where multigenerational intensive breeding has occurred. Examples such as - maize, watermelons, wheat, cotton, potatoes, cabbage, leek, strawberries, pansies, oat, peanuts, sugar cane, bananas, tobacco and apples.

Independent verification
The University of Queensland has completed an independent examination of the ploidy level, genomic stability and growth performance of a range of adapted tree species.

The report compared measurements of plant morphology (height, growth, stem diameter, number of branches, total biomass, leaf area, etc) as well as plant physiology (net photosynthesis rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, fluorescence, chlorophyll content, etc).

Results confirm polyploids outperformed their diploid parents, specifically showing:

• Significantly greater leaf elongation rates
• Significantly greater leaf size
• Significantly greater stomatal conductance
• Significantly greater photosynthetic rate
• Significantly greater electron transport rate
• Significantly greater plant biomass
• Significantly greater flower/fruit mass
• Significantly greater nuclear DNA content
• Significantly higher chlorophyll levels
• All of the above whilst utilising less resources than their diploid parents.
• 'all clone lines of the ten species tested had extremely high genomic stability, demonstrating that mass clonal production programmes should result in phenotypically stable clone lines'
• 'Selected clone lines were morphologically different, exhibited better growth, had an increased photosynthetic rate and different biochemical properties than their diploid parents'

BioFuelGenomics has an Exclusive Worldwide Marketing License for the Biofuel Industries, with the exceptions of the oil palm industry [Biopact note: because the technique has already been used and licences by another company that succeeded in creating clonal palms that yield 30% more oil]. Other related corporations hold the other respective exclusive marketing licenses in Timber and Pulping trees, Land Remediation, Medical and Pharmaceutical, Food and Fibre, as well as the amenity horticulture industry.