• Question: What kind of genes do you switch on/off?

    Asked by to Jennifer on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Jennifer Stephens

      Jennifer Stephens answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Hi aec1
      We’ve tried switching lots of genes off and on. At the moment we are working with some genes that are important in biofuels research. These are genes that make lignin, and there are about 10 of them. Lignin is really important for plants. It protects them from being chewed by insects, and it also gives them strength to grow upright. Without any lignin plants would just flop over.

      To make biofuels from fully grown plants we need to release the sugars from the plant stems, but the sugars are all surrounded by lignin so we need to remove the lignin first and then we can then free all the sugar.

      By switching off some of the lignin genes we may be able to change the type of lignin made so that it doesn’t bind the sugars so tightly.

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