Brazilian researchers studying where biomass and sucrose accumulate in sugarcane

April 3, 2019 |

In Brazil, researchers at the University of São Paulo’s Bioscience Institute have focused on studying the genes involved in sugarcane root cell separation with the aim of developing transgenic varieties of sugarcane in which the process occurs in other parts of the plant, such as the stem, where biomass and sucrose accumulate. The cell walls in these varieties would be as soft as in a papaya—hence the nickname “papaya sugarcane”—and could more easily be degraded to produce second-generation bioethanol (obtained from biomass) on a large scale.

Category: Research

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