China is rich in energy plant resources. In this article, 64 plant species are identified as potential energy plants in China. The energy plant species include 38 oilseed crops, 5 starch-producing crops, 3 sugar-producing crops and 18 species for lignocellulosic biomass. The species were evaluated on the basis of their production capacity and their resistance to salt, drought, and/or low temperature stress. Ten plant species have high production and/or stress resistance and can be potentially developed as the candidate energy plants. Of these, four species could be the primary energy plants in China: Barbados nut (Jatropha curcas L.), Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus L.), sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) and Chinese silvergrass (Miscanthus sinensis Anderss.). We discuss the use of biotechnological techniques such as genome sequencing, molecular markers, and genetic transformation to improve energy plants. These techniques are being used to develop new cultivars and to analyze and manipulate genetic variation to improve attributes of energy plants in China.
The online version of this article (doi: 10.1007/s00267-010-9443-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
The authors would like to thank the professional editor from Liwen Bianji-Edanz Editing (China) and Dr. Mathew Christian Halter from Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee for their help in improving the English language use. We are grateful to four anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This research was funded by the National Basic Research Program of China (973, 2007CB108905) and the Key Project of Kaidi (81618C1001).