Genetic resources for the dissection of bioenergy traits

The aim of the project is to provide genetic resources for the dissection of bioenergy traits. IBERS has assembled one of the world's largest collections of Miscanthus based on genetic resources already in Europe and its own extensive collections from Asia. This unique resource has already been used to make biparental mapping populations to identify QTL for flowering time, senescence and stem traits. Ongoing characterisations of germplasm are identifying a series of suitable new crosses including interspecific hybrids. These populations are being established for exploitation in other sub-programmes. To provide the plant materials to address biological and breeding questions in a perennial species such as Miscanthus, that takes several years before reaching maturity, requires significant planning. A number of new trials and populations are therefore being constructed to relate genotype to phenotype, genotype to environment, and phenotype to end use. These populations complement those established over the last eight years including an earlier diversity trial of Miscanthus genotypes that were in Europe prior to 2004, and mapping populations to study flowering time, leaf and stem traits.