Bioenergy Feedstocks: Breeding and Genetics

Bioenergy and biofuels are generated from a wide variety of feedstock. Fuels have been converted from a wide range of sources from vegetable oils to grains and sugarcane. Second generation biofuels are being developed around dedicated, non-food energy crops, such as switchgrass and Miscanthus, with an eye toward bioenergy sustainability.  Bioenergy Feedstocks: Breeding and Genetics looks at advances in our understanding of the genetics and breeding practices across this diverse range of crops and provides readers with a valuable tool to improve cultivars and increase energy crop yields.

Bioenergy Feedstocks: Breeding and Genetics opens with chapters focusing primarily on advances in the genetics and molecular biology of dedicated energy crops. These chapters provide in-depth coverage of new, high-potential feedstocks. The remaining chapters provide valuable overview of breeding efforts of current feedstocks with specific attention paid to the development of bioenergy traits. Coverage in these chapters includes crops such as sorghum, energy canes, corn, and other grasses and forages.

The final chapters explore the role of transgenics in bioenergy feedstock production and the development of low-input strategies for producing bioenergy crops. A timely collection of work from a global team of bioenergy researchers and crop scientists, Bioenergy Feedstocks: Breeding and Genetics is an essential reference on cultivar improvement of biomass feedstock crops.

Malay C. Saha is an Associate Professor and Principal Investigator of the Molecular Markers Lab, Forage Improvement Division at The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, OK.

Hem S. Bhandari is an Assistant Professor of Bioenergy/Biomass Feedstock Breeding and Genetics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.

Joseph H. Bouton is the former Director and Senior Vice President, Forage Improvement Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, OKand Emeritus Professor of Crop and Soil Sciences at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA.