Combining enhanced biomass density with reduced lignin level for improved forage quality.

ABSTRACT: To generate a forage crop with increased biomass density that retains forage quality, we have genetically transformed lines of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) expressing antisense constructs targeting two different lignin pathway biosynthetic genes with a construct for down-regulation of a WRKY family transcription factor that acts as a repressor of secondary cell wall formation in pith tissues. Plants with low-level expression of the WRKY dominant repressor construct produced lignified cell walls in pith tissues and exhibited enhanced biomass and biomass density, with an increase in total sugars in the cell wall fraction; however, lines with high expression of the WRKY dominant repressor construct exhibited a very different phenotype, with loss of interfascicular fibres associated with repre

SUBMITTER: Gallego-Giraldo L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11388942 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature