With the demands for sugarcane increasing, being a major part of it getting used in making bio-fuels to meet environmental concerns across the world, the need for more production of the crop is increasing.
To meet the ends, researchers are up with arms to modify its genes for making sugarcane more productive. For further research, the Australian Research Council has given almost $1 million to the University of Queensland.
Though, genes to boost the crop’s sugar content have already been developed also to extend its uses in bio-fuel production, it is said that it can mysteriously turn off some sugarcane genes as there are many different others present.
This new research tries to get over that special problem in sugarcane by zooming into understanding how are turning off genes so special, letting get those different gene varieties exploited in a useful and practical way.
University of Queensland Professor Robert Birch says,
It’s probably got some tricks that turn off lots of extra copies it doesn’t need, and by accident if you like, it’s turning off introduced genes that we’re putting in there.
This finding would definitely not just improve the profitability and economic sustainability of the industry, but, could also extend its uses to produce bio-fuels.
