Regulation of plant biomass production.

Plant biomass used for cellulosic biofuel production is primarily from vegetative tissues. Therefore, an increase in the vegetative growth of plants will lead to a higher production of plant biomass. Recent molecular and genetic studies have identified a number of factors that regulate processes such as vegetative meristem activities, cell elongation, photosynthetic efficiency, and secondary wall biosynthesis, all of which are crucial for plant biomass production. The regulators of these processes could potentially be applied to improve the yield of biomass crops such as Miscanthus, switchgrass, and hybrid poplar in the near future. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.