Breeding of Miscanthus is aided by understanding its complex evolutionary history, including its relationship with Saccharum
Ìý
You are invited to attend a special seminar by Dr. Erik Sacks, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois
Miscanthus, a native of eastern Asia and Oceania, has been an important ornamental grass in North American gardens for more than a century. A close relative of sugarcane but with adaptation to temperate environments, Miscanthus Xgiganteus has recently been identified as a promising bioenergy crop. To facilitate crop improvement, Sacks' research group has endeavored to understand the relationships among and within Miscanthus species, especially the parental species of M. Xgiganteus, and their putative hybrids with sugarcane. This effort also enabled them to corroborate and shed light on the history of the West’s earliest introductions of Miscanthus. By combining genetic data from high throughput sequencing with phenotypic data from field trials of Miscanthus, Sacks has begun to identify QTL, and in some cases genes, that confer key biomass and adaptation traits.
This seminar is hosted by the Department of Plant Science.
Ìý