Study of traits and recalcitrance reduction of field-grown COMT down-regulated switchgrass

Table 1 Biomass yields, dyes adsorption on switchgrass, DP of cellulose, and molecular weight of hemicellulose

	Biomass yield	Cellulose accessibility (mg/g)			Cellulose			Hemicellulose (×10³ g/mol)
	Y _DW (kg/m²)	A _O	A _B	O/B	DP_n	DP_w	PDI	M _w	M _n
Reference		24.6^a	9.3^a	2.65^a	39 ± 4^a	283 ± 12^a	7.3^a	18.7 ± 0.7^b	10.8 ± 0.6^b
Year 2 control	2.2 ± 0.2	5.4	5.4	1.02	431 ± 25	3729 ± 183	8.7	31.6 ± 3.0	21.6 ± 3.7
Year 2 transgenic	2.6 ± 0.1*	6.6*	5.0	1.35	438 ± 50	3855 ± 299	8.9	29.3 ± 1.9*	19.7 ± 2.2
Year 3 control	2.5 ± 0.1	5.3	5.5	0.98	421 ± 52	3848 ± 131	9.2	36.0 ± 1.2	23.7 ± 0.9
Year 3 transgenic	2.9 ± 0.1	6.4*	6.2	1.09	402 ± 44	3875 ± 187	9.7	32.1 ± 3.0*	21.1 ± 1.6*

Y _DW is the dry weight biomass yield adapted from literature [19]. The maximum adsorption capacity of orange (A _O) and blue (A _B), adsorption ratio of orange to blue (O/B), degree of polymerization (DP) and polydispersity index (PDI) of cellulose, and the average molecular weights of hemicellulose of COMT down-regulated switchgrass and controls. The value reported was the average of 5 biological replicates from each control group and 10 biological replicates from each transgenic group. DP_n and DP_w: number-average and weight-average degree of polymerization; M _n and M _w: number-average and weight-average molecular weights; a: Avicel PH101; b: beech wood xylan. An asterisk (*) for the bold numbers indicates a significant difference between the transgenic and control groups as determined by a Student’s t test (P < 0.05). ± is followed by standard deviation

ISSN: 2731-3654