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Washington State University researchers are looking into ways to maximize this plant as a revenue-making cover crop.

November 10, 2020

3 Min Read
Pennycress flowers
FROM WEED TO WINNER: Pennycress is found around the world and was once considered just a weed. Its seeds, however, could be a source of oil to use as biodiesel or jet fuel. HHelene/Getty Images)

Around the world, pennycress is a familiar plant, and it’s often considered a weed. The plant is named for its coin-shaped, oil-rich seed pods that are unsuitable for human consumption, but could be an ideal source for biodiesel and jet fuels.

This fall, Washington State University researchers are taking a closer look at the genetics and physiology of pennycress as part of a multi-institutional, $12.9 million research project. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and led by Illinois State University scientist John Sedbrook.

The program’s five-year goal is to develop a winter cover crop that can thrive in the Pacific Northwest, the Corn Belt and beyond. As a cover crop with a purpose, pennycress could provide an added income source if the research is successful.

Karen Sanguinet leads a $1.29 million subsidiary project at WSU. She is a crop physiologist and molecular geneticist in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. She is teamed with Tarah Sullivan, soil microbiologist, and Isaac Madsen, Extension agronomist.

They join collaborators at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Minnesota, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Ohio State University, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Western Illinois University and CoverCress Inc. in efforts to improve oilseed genetics.

Sanguinet explains that pennycress is an alternative crop, with promise as both an oilseed and a cover crop that improves soil health and ecosystem services. “One goal is to identify adaptive genes that allow pennycress to survive in a range of environments and integrate into a suite of cropping systems,” she adds.

Understanding pennycress

Native to Eurasia, pennycress is a brassica, a class that includes canola and other oilseeds. Wild pennycress varieties are inedible, due to high levels of a fatty acid that happens to be desirable for conversion to jet fuel. Pennycress has been developed as a winter cover crop for the U.S. Corn Belt, and is now being tested in other temperate regions, including the Pacific Northwest.

Naturally cold- and flood-tolerant, pennycress helps improve soil health and natural soil processes. The plant can capture nitrates that can leach into groundwater, suppressing growth of spring weeds and preventing erosion. With modification, pennycress can also be bred to have a similar oil profile to canola, with fewer fatty acids that make it unpalatable.

The project, launched in September, will help define genetic traits that promote good yields, define oil content and profiles, and improve stress resilience for a changing climate.

The team plans to deploy gene editing and combining of desirable traits; and sequencing of natural, beneficial genetic changes and mutations. Team members will also study traits, the transcriptome, which is the full range of messenger RNA expressed by an organism; and the metabolome, which is a complex web of chemicals that interact within living things. The aim is to build knowledge for breeding and crop development.

Sanguinet expects the findings to deliver a better understanding of basic oilseed biology to help improve related oilseed crops, such as canola and camelina.

She adds that the crop has a simple, sequenced genome, and it’s easy to transform for gene editing. “It has great potential both as a biofuel crop and as an oilseed for human consumption and animal feed. Our work will help build a foundation of resources for the broader pennycress community and support breeding efforts for more sustainable crops,” Sanguinet says.

Source: Washington State University, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.

 

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