This educational series is geared towards
younger students to introduce them to biological model species and stimulate
their interests in STEM careers. In the plant sciences, this segment would not
be complete without introducing Arabidopsis thaliana, the lab rat of plant
genetics. Arabidopsis is a relatively simple plant when it comes to the content
of its DNA and it grows to full maturity very rapidly. Researchers have
utilized these characteristics to generate a complete genome sequence and used
information from Arabidopsis to help gain knowledge of genes in other related
plant species. Arabidopsis is a member of the mustard family of flowering
plants that contains economically important plant species like broccoli,
cabbage, cauliflower, kale, canola and many others. Among them is Pennycress (Thlaspi
arvense). Pennycress might have been a common weed in the past, but
researchers have figured out how to convert the oil it produces into biofuel,
jet fuel, and food oil!
Pennycress has existed in nature as a weedy
species for all of its evolutionary history, until 2012 when scientists at the
University of Minnesota undertook a daring challenge to directly domesticate
pennycress from the wild, into a cash cover crop. But Why Pennycress? As
a ubiquitous weed, it has had hundreds of years of selection acting upon it to
engineer itself as a naturally hardy and cold tolerant plant species. That
means it protects itself from pests with endogenous chemical compounds that act
as natural repellant, while also being able to live under a pile of snow and
freezing cold that is common in the upper Midwest (it even survived a polar
vortex of -40 degrees C!). These characteristics are important because the
major goal of our breeding program is to grow pennycress as a cash cover crop,
meaning, it will be planted after harvesting the main summer crop (eg. maize,
soybeans, wheat), and allowed to germinate and establish itself in the fall.
During the winter, it will live in a dormant state under the snow until
springtime, when the snowmelt along with rising temperatures initiate more
vigorous growth and transition from vegetative to flowering state. The seeds
harvested at maturity can be pressed for oil that has major biofuel, jet fuel,
and food oil potential depending on their chemical composition.
Pennycress is still very much a wild child when
compared to its domesticated oilseed relative, Canola, with natural oil being
much more suitable for industrial uses like biofuels and jet fuels. However,
the oil profile is strikingly amenable to mimic that of canola for use as a
healthy food oil with some focused genetic intervention and breeding efforts.
Chopra et al. have published their latest efforts in identification and
stacking of important domestication traits to create domesticated pennycress in
a recent paper featured here. The progress in converting a wild species into a profitable
cover crop is an exciting development in our search for more sustainable agricultural
practices and eco-friendly sources of biofuel and jet fuels.
This article was written by scientist Zenith Tandukar, a PhD student specialising in Pennycress breeding and Genetics. Zenith is currently working in the James A. Anderson Lab at
the University of Minnesota.
You can see what Zenith is up to or get in touch by following on Twitter or linking up on Linkedin!
Twitter: @zTiredScientist LinkedIn: Zenith Tandukar
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