Using Comparative Genomics to Improve Commercial Energy Crops.

To create commercially relevant improvements in energy crops requires prioritization of the trait improvements needed and knowledge of existing germplasm.  This requires extensive assessments of germplasm in relevant environments and knowledge of the genes capable of creating trait improvements. Ceres has used rice in field experiments  as a model grass for finding single, dominant genes that improve relevant traits and is now bringing these selected  genes into energy crops and measuring their value in the field. A perspective of how combining genomics and breeding might speed up energy crop improvements will be given.