Introduction of fructosyltransferase genes of the cool season grass, Lolium perenne into the warm season grass, Miscanthus sinensis, a potential bioenergy crop

One of the most intensively investigated potential new energy crops is Miscanthus that has a great potentiality for biomass production in the cold environment due to its efficient C₄ photosynthetic pathway under low temperature. Molecular breeding will offer good opportunities, especially for value added traits such as enhanced biomass, abiotic stress tolerance and fermentation efficiency. Particle bombardment-mediated transformation has been established in M. sinensis (Wang et al. 2011).  Fructans are linear or branched forms of fructose polymers and they accumulate in plant cells as a carbohydrate reserve in addition to or instead of starch, and are also thought to be involved in the maintenance of osmotic potentials.  The accumulation of fructan is of critical importance in the acquisition of freezing tolerance for plant species such as perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne). Miscanthus is non-fructan producing plant naturally which accumulates starch as the storage carbohydrate.  Fructosyltransferase (FT) genes as prft1 (encoding 6-SFT), prft3 (encoding 6G-FFT) and prft4 (encoding 1-SST) which were isolated from perennial ryegrass have been succeefully introduced into M. sinensis by particle bombardment-mediated method. The PCR, Southern hybridization and qPCR analyses confirmed the existence and expression of FT genes. Some plants containing prft4, whose encoding protein catalyzes the critical first step of fructan synthesis, were detected fructan accumulation.