Switchgrass is attractive as a potential bioenergy crop because it can grow for years without having to be replanted. Requiring less fertilizer than typical annual crops like corn, switchgrass can keep more nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon in the soil and out of our air and waterways. But, unlike corn, breeding of switchgrass for optimal traits is still in its early stages.

Now, in a collaboration with the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, and the University of Texas at Austin, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center researchers at Michigan State University have identified specific parts of genetic code within the plant that could contribute to larger switchgrass harvests – while reducing potential crop weaknesses.

David Lowry, assistant professor of plant biology at MSU, and Thomas Juenger, professor of integrative biology at UT Austin led a team that identified genes that boost switchgrass growth across a wide range of climates – and that these plants can be bred to include these genetic markers. In so doing, the researchers found that some adaptive traits in switchgrass can often be improved without hurting plant health in other ways. The results of this study were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.