tailieunhanh - Genetic engineering approaches to improve bioethanol production from maize

Biofuels such as bioethanol are becoming a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Utilizing agricultural biomass for the production of biofuel has drawn much interest in many science and engineering disciplines. As one of the major crops, maize offers promise in this regard. Compared to other crops with biofuel potential, maize can provide both starch (seed) and cellulosic (stover) material for bioethanol production. However, the combination of food, feed and fuel in one crop, although appealing, raises concerns related to the land delineation and distribution of maize grown for energy versus food and feed | h Full text provided by ScienceDirect ELSEVIER Genetic engineering approaches to improve bioethanol production from maize Franqois Torney Lorena Moeller Andrea Scarpa and Kan Wang Biofuels such as bioethanol are becoming a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Utilizing agricultural biomass for the production of biofuel has drawn much interest in many science and engineering disciplines. As one of the major crops maize offers promise in this regard. Compared to other crops with biofuel potential maize can provide both starch seed and cellulosic stover material for bioethanol production. However the combination of food feed and fuel in one crop although appealing raises concerns related to the land delineation and distribution of maize grown for energy versus food and feed. To avoid this dilemma the conversion of maize biomass into bioethanol must be improved. Conventional breeding molecular marker assisted breeding and genetic engineering have already had and will continue to have important roles in maize improvement. The rapidly expanding information from genomics and genetics combined with improved genetic engineering technologies offer a wide range of possibilities for enhanced bioethanol production from maize. Addresses Center for Plant Transformation Plant Science Institute and Department of Agronomy Iowa State University Ames Iowa 50011 USA Corresponding author Wang Kan kanwang@ Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2007 18 193-199 This review comes from a themed issue on Energy biotechnology Edited by Lars Angenent Available online 30th March 2007 0958-1669 - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. DOI Introduction The world energy demand is increasing steadily as the human population grows and economic development progresses. However the current predominant energy source the fossil fuel supply is limited. This emphasizes the need to complement fossil-fuel-based energy sources with .