Engineered Plants with Oily Leaves May be Key to More Efficient Biofuels

A plant with oily leaves may hold the key to more efficient biofuels. Researchers from Michigan State University have successfully engineered a plant to possess more oil in its leaves, which could lead to improved animal feeds as well as enhanced biofuel production.

The researchers, led by Christoph Benning, MSU professor of biochemistry, began by identifying five genes from one-celled green algae. The researchers then identified one gene from the five that successfully boosted the oil levels in leaf tissue when inserted into Arabidopsis thaliana, more commonly known as thale cress or mouse-ear cress. It's a small flowering plant that is native to Europe, Asia and northwestern Africa. After inserting the gene into the plant, it was time to test it in order to see if the plant properly expressed the gene.

The researchers tested the plant by taking its leaves and feeding them to caterpillar larvae. They fed some of the caterpillar larvae regular leaves, while the others they fed with the genetically enhanced leaves. The scientists found that the larvae that were fed oily leaves from the altered plants gained more weight than the larvae that ate the regular leaves. This proved that they were able to make a plant that contained more energy.

Benning and his colleagues aren't done, though. They hope to work to enhance oil production in grasses and algae that have an economic value. This could allow them to create organisms that could have a larger commercial value and could allow them to create plants that can be used for better agricultural feed.

"If oil can be extracted from leaves, stems and seeds, the potential energy capacity of plants may double," said Benning in a press release. "Further, if algae can be engineered to continuously produce high levels of oil, rather than only when they are under stress, they can become a viable alternative to traditional agricultural crops."

The findings are published in the journal The Plant Cell.