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Liu G, Zhang Y, Gong H, Li S, Pan Y, Davis C, Jing HC, Wu L, Godwin ID. Stem vacuole-targetted sucrose isomerase enhances sugar content in sorghum. Biotechnol Biofuels 2021; 14:53. [PMID: 33648580 PMCID: PMC7923521 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-021-01907-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 02/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Sugar content is critically important in determining sugar crop productivity. However, improvement in sugar content has been stagnant among sugar crops for decades. Sorghum, especially sweet sorghum with high biomass, shown great potential for biofuel, has lower sugar content than sugarcane. To enhance sugar content, the sucrose isomerase (SI) gene, driven by stem-specific promoters (A2 or LSG) with a vacuole-targetted signal peptide, was transformed into the sorghum inbred line (T×430). RESULTS The study demonstrated that transgenic lines of grain sorghum, containing 50-60% isomaltulose, accumulated up to eightfold (1000 mM) more total sugar than the control T×430 did (118 mM) in stalks of T0 generation. Subsequently, the elite engineered lines (A5, and LSG9) were crossed with sweet sorghum (Rio, and R9188). Total sugar contents (over 750 mM), were notably higher in F1, and F2 progenies than the control Rio (480 mM). The sugar contents of the engineered lines (over 750 mM), including T0, T1, F1, and F2, are surprisingly higher than that of the field-grown sugarcane (normal range 600-700 mmol/L). Additionally, analysis of physiological characterization demonstrated that the superior progenies had notably higher rates of photosynthesis, sucrose transportation, and sink strength than the controls. CONCLUSIONS The genetic engineering approach has dramatically enhanced total sugar content in grain sorghum (T0, and T1) and hybrid sorghum (F1, and F2), demonstrating that sorghum can accumulate as high or higher sugar content than sugarcane. This research illustrates that the SI gene has enormous potential on improvement of sugar content in sorghum, particularly in hybirds and sweet sorghum. The substantial increase on sugar content would lead to significant financial benefits for industrial utilization. This study could have a substantial impact on renewable bioenergy. More importantly, our results demonstrated that the phenotype of high sugar content is inheritable and shed light on improvement for other sugar crops.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guoquan Liu
- Centre for Crop Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia.
| | - Yan Zhang
- Centre for Crop Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia
| | - Hao Gong
- Centre for Crop Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia
| | - Shan Li
- Centre for Crop Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia
| | - Yunrong Pan
- School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia
| | - Christopher Davis
- School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia
| | - Hai-Chun Jing
- Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
| | - Luguang Wu
- School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia
| | - Ian D Godwin
- Centre for Crop Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072, Queensland, Australia
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Robbins A, Loader J, Timms P, Hanger J. Optimising the short and long-term clinical outcomes for koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) during treatment for chlamydial infection and disease. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0209679. [PMID: 30589897 PMCID: PMC6307739 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2018] [Accepted: 12/10/2018] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) have suffered severe declines in the northern extent of their range due to a variety of threats, including habitat destruction, trauma from cars and dogs, climate change and importantly, disease. The most significant pathogen in koalas is Chlamydia pecorum, which causes inflammation and fibrosis at mucosal sites, resulting in blindness, infertility and death in severe cases. Chlamydia treatment can be problematic in koalas as the response to treatment is often poor in chronic cases and antimicrobial choice is limited. Thus, chlamydial disease is a severely threatening process for koala conservation. We investigated the short and long-term clinical outcomes for 167 koalas with Chlamydia that underwent capture, telemetric monitoring and intensive veterinary management as part of a large-scale population management program in South East Queensland. Chlamydia treatments included the standard regimen of daily subcutaneous chloramphenicol injections (60mg/kg) for 14 to 28-days, and a variety of non-standard regimens such as topical antimicrobials only (for ocular disease), surgical treatment only (for bilateral reproductive tract disease), and other antimicrobials/treatment lengths. To assess these regimens we analysed clinical records, field monitoring data and swab samples collected from the urogenital tract and ocular conjunctiva. Overall, in contrast to other studies, treatment was generally successful with 86.3% of treated koalas released back into the wild. The success of treatment rose to 94.8% however, when the standard treatment regimen was employed. Further, 100% of koalas that were also treated with surgical ovariohysterectomy (n = 12) remained healthy for a median of 466 days of post-treatment monitoring, demonstrating the benefits of surgical treatment. Previous studies reported 45-day chloramphenicol regimens, but the shorter standard regimen still achieved microbiological cure and reduces the risk of negative sequelae associated with treatment and/or captivity and treatment costs. Despite these positive clinical outcomes, alternatives to chloramphenicol are warranted due to its decreasing availability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Robbins
- Endeavour Veterinary Ecology Pty Ltd, Toorbul, Queensland, Australia
- Genecology Centre, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Joanne Loader
- Endeavour Veterinary Ecology Pty Ltd, Toorbul, Queensland, Australia
| | - Peter Timms
- Genecology Centre, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, Queensland, Australia
| | - Jonathan Hanger
- Endeavour Veterinary Ecology Pty Ltd, Toorbul, Queensland, Australia
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