Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a US Department of Energy model species, is widely considered for US biomass energy production. While previous studies have demonstrated the effect of climate and management factors on biomass yield and chemical characteristics of switchgrass monocultures, information is lacking on the yield of switchgrass grown in combination with other species for biomass en...

By roughly 8,000 calendar years before the present (calBP), hunter-gatherers across a broad swath of north China had begun small-scale farming of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica). According to traditional wisdom, this early millet farming evolved from the intensive hunter-gatherer adaptation represented by the late Pleistocene microblade tradition of nor...

The objective of this research was to determine the conversion efficiency of proso millet to ethanol compared to corn in a bench-scale dry-grind procedure. Seven proso millet cultivars and six advanced breeding lines containing waxy starch were fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae and ethanol production was compared with normal corn and “highly fermentable” corn. The highly fermentable corn ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The grass Alloteropsis semialata is the only plant species with both C(3) and C(4) subspecies. It therefore offers excellent potential as a model system for investigating the genetics, physiology and ecological significance of the C(4) photosynthetic pathway. Here, a molecular phylogeny of the genus Alloteropsis is constructed to: (a) confirm the close relationship between t...

We used the natural abundance of stable isotopic ratios of hydrogen and oxygen in soil (0.05-3 m depth), plant xylem and precipitation to determine the seasonal changes in sources of soil water uptake by two native encroaching woody species (Pinus ponderosa P. & C. Lawson, Juniperus virginiana L.), and two C(4) grasses (Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx.) Nash, Panicum virgatum L.), in the semiari...

Experiments were conducted to examine the utility of a spectrophometric leaf disc assay for detecting shikimate accumulation after glyphosate application in sunflower, proso millet, and wheat. The assay was conducted on both greenhouseand field-grown plants. Glyphosate was applied at five rates ranging from 840 to 53 g ae ha. Shikimate accumulation data were generated at 1, 4, 7, and 14 d after...

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a C4 perennial grass and has been identified as a potential bioenergy crop for cellulosic ethanol because of its rapid growth rate, nutrient use efficiency and widespread distribution throughout North America. The improvement of bioenergy feedstocks is needed to make cellulosic ethanol economically feasible, and genetic engineering of switchgrass is a promis...

The anaerobic fungus Orpinomyces strain C1A is capable of growth on various types of lignocellulosic substrates, and harbors an impressive reservoir of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes). Using a minimum enzyme cocktail strategy, we constituted a four-component lignocellulolytic cocktail derived from highly transcribed C1A, and evaluated its efficacy against pretreated corn stover and switch...

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) cultivars are currently under development as lignocellulosic feedstock. Here we present a survey of three established switchgrass experimental nurseries in Nebraska in which we identified Panicum mosaic virus (PMV) as the most prevalent virus. In 2012, 72% of 139 symptomatic plants tested positive for PMV. Of the PMV-positive samples, 19% were coinfected with its ...