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Biotechnology Towards Energy Crops

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Abstract

New crops are gradually establishing along with cultivation systems to reduce reliance on depleting fossil fuel reserves and sustain better adaptation to climate change. These biological assets could be efficiently exploited as bioenergy feedstocks. Bioenergy crops are versatile renewable sources with the potential to alternatively contribute on a daily basis towards the coverage of modern society’s energy demands. Biotechnology may facilitate the breeding of elite energy crop genotypes, better suited for bio-processing and subsequent use that will improve efficiency, further reduce costs, and enhance the environmental benefits of biofuels. Innovative molecular techniques may improve a broad range of important features including biomass yield, product quality and resistance to biotic factors like pests or microbial diseases or environmental cues such as drought, salinity, freezing injury or heat shock. The current review intends to assess the capacity of biotechnological applications to develop a beneficial bioenergy pipeline extending from feedstock development to sustainable biofuel production and provide examples of the current state of the art on future energy crops.

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Acknowledgments

This work was part of the 4FCrops project that was funded by the Seventh (7th) Research Framework Programme of the European Community. All the 4FCrops consortium members and the anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for their helpful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 11855, Athens, Greece

    Theoni Margaritopoulou, Loukia Roka, Stamatis Rigas & Dimitra Milioni

  2. Center for Renewable Energy Sources, 19th Km Marathonos Ave, 19009, Pikermi, Greece

    Efi Alexopoulou & Myrsini Christou

  3. Department of Botany, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Kosmas Haralampidis

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  1. Theoni Margaritopoulou
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Correspondence to Dimitra Milioni.

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Margaritopoulou, T., Roka, L., Alexopoulou, E. et al. Biotechnology Towards Energy Crops. Mol Biotechnol 58, 149–158 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-016-9913-6

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