Plant hormone could help produce biofuels

Scientists at The University of Manchester have identified how a plant hormone can affect the rate of cell division in vascular tissue in plants. The findings demonstrate how the hormone controls plant growth to produce more biomass which could be used to make the next generation of biofuels.

Vascular tissue is responsible for providing structural support to plants; for example wood is made up of specialised vascular cells. It's made by a group of dividing cells present in a structure called the procambium. But how cell division is controlled is poorly understood.

Professor Simon Turner and Dr Peter Etchells from the Faculty of Life Sciences carried out a number of experiments using the gaseous plant hormone ethylene.

Arabidopsis plants were treated with ethylene which resulted in genes promoting cell division in the procambium being switched on. The team also found that cell division happened earlier in plants exposed to ethylene.

Professor Turner says, ''It's well documented that ethylene can increase plant growth, but what has not been identified before is how it affects cell division. This is what we wanted to identify, particularly with the benefits this knowledge could bring to the development of biofuels.''

The team also found that ethylene signalling interacts with PXY, a gene which has been identified as being essential for coordinated cell divisions in the procambium.