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Major Energy Plants and Their Potential for Bioenergy Development in China

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Abstract

China is rich in energy plant resources. In this article, 64 plant species are identified as potential energy plants in China. The energy plant species include 38 oilseed crops, 5 starch-producing crops, 3 sugar-producing crops and 18 species for lignocellulosic biomass. The species were evaluated on the basis of their production capacity and their resistance to salt, drought, and/or low temperature stress. Ten plant species have high production and/or stress resistance and can be potentially developed as the candidate energy plants. Of these, four species could be the primary energy plants in China: Barbados nut (Jatropha curcas L.), Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.), sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) and Chinese silvergrass (Miscanthus sinensis Anderss.). We discuss the use of biotechnological techniques such as genome sequencing, molecular markers, and genetic transformation to improve energy plants. These techniques are being used to develop new cultivars and to analyze and manipulate genetic variation to improve attributes of energy plants in China.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the professional editor from Liwen Bianji-Edanz Editing (China) and Dr. Mathew Christian Halter from Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee for their help in improving the English language use. We are grateful to four anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This research was funded by the National Basic Research Program of China (973, 2007CB108905) and the Key Project of Kaidi (81618C1001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. R & D Center for Energy Plants, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    Xiaofeng Li, Shenglin Hou, Man Su, Mingfeng Yang, Shihua Shen, Dongmei Qi, Shuangyan Chen & Gongshe Liu

  2. Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiaofeng Li

  3. Institute of Millet Crops, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

    Shenglin Hou

  4. State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China

    Gaoming Jiang

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  1. Xiaofeng Li
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  2. Shenglin Hou
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  9. Gongshe Liu
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Correspondence to Gongshe Liu.

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Li, X., Hou, S., Su, M. et al. Major Energy Plants and Their Potential for Bioenergy Development in China. Environmental Management 46, 579–589 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-010-9443-0

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