Objective
The goal of this project is to produce, by genetic engineering, transgenic sugar cane varieties of which the bagasse can be efficiently used for paper pulp production and for livestock feed. Our strategy involves the reduction of the lignin content or a modification of its composition in the fibre by reducing the production of the enzymes cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD), bispecific caffeic acid/5-hydroxyferulic acid-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and/or cinnamoyl-CoA-reductase (CCR) by antisense technology. As an alternative strategy, lignin content and composition will be altered through the modification of the p-coumaric acid (and its aldehyde and alcohol derivatives) content. Both strategies would increase the quality of the bagasse pulp by facilitating lignin extraction during the pulping process in the paper industry. In addition, the proposed modifications would increase the nutritional value of the bagasse forage through improvement of its digestibility.
Expected Outcome
The sugar industry generates hundreds of millions of tons of bagasse that are unused or simply burned. The work carried out in this project should result in transgenic sugar cane varieties of which the bagasse can be used in the pulp and paper industry and as livestock feed. In addition, basic knowledge on the regulation of lignin biosynthesis in grasses will be gained.
The key activities envisaged are :
* to isolate cDNAs for CAD, COMT and CCR;
* to make chimeric sense and antisense constructs for all three genes;
* to transform sugar cane varieties of high economic interest;
* to generate polyclonal antibodies for CAD, COMT and CCR;
* to evaluate the transgenic lines by molecular analyses;
* to isolate genes responsible for the catabolism of p-coumaric acid from Pseudomonas;
* to overexpress these genes in sugarcane;
* to overexpress this gene in transgenic sugarcane that overproduces COMT;
* to evaluate all transgenic lines for lignin modifications;
* to evaluate the transgenic lines for their digestibility;
* to evaluate the transgenic plants in the field.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry aldehydes
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology genetic engineering
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture industrial crops fodder
- natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry alcohols
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals animal husbandry animal feed
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
9000 GENT
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.