Title: Taiwan oil millet - a novel C4 cereal plant that secrete liquid and solid wax

Biography:

Yue-ie C. Hsing has completed her PhD at the age of 34 from University of Illinois, USA. She is a Distinguished Research Fellow in Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She major in plant genomics studies and has published more than 100 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board members of Rice, Botanical Studies, and Plant and Cell Physiology.

Abstract

Eccoilopus formosanus (Taiwan Oil Millet, TOM) is an orphan cereal endemic to Taiwan that was domesticated by the aboriginal population. TOM is a perennial C4 species, remarkable in that it secretes large quantities of oil and/or liquid wax on the panicle and copious amounts of solid wax on the leaf sheaths of a substantial vegetative biomass. TOM seeds possess an exceptionally large embryo, rich in triacylglycerol and protein. TOM constitutes an oil-rich cereal crop possessing an energy-rich biomass. The panicle exudate contains fatty acids, with high % of C28 chain lengths together with diverse alkanes. The leaf sheath epiderm secretes a uniform cuticular wax and a solid wax in the form of hairs from arrays of pores. The wax hairs comprise fatty acids chain length up to C26 and abundant alkanes up to C34. The seed contains 13.3% protein and 11% triacylglycerol, exceptionally high for cereals, enriched in linoleic acids. The species is unique in the combination of physiological attributes and may constitute a multifunctional crop of value as an energy-rich biomass and/or a source of plant waxes for industrial uses as well as a protein-calorie rich seed. We are currently work on the omics analysis of this crop, we also are developing it into ideal staple crop and forage crop.