Scientists from Brno are able to cultivate plants with heightened biomass production

Scientists from the Masaryk University in Brno (MU) succesfully obtained a patent for a new way of biomass production. The discovery was made in cooperation with colleagues from South Korea. The method would allow to cultivate plants with higher biomass production.

The biomass is recently still more and more used as an alternative energy source. The patent has also possible theoretical applications in food and beverage industry or pharmaceutical industry.

The scientists found out that proteins and phytohormones can influence the division of stem cells, and that fact can be exploited using the genetic engineering methods. „We found out that genetic interference aimed on regulation of activity of these proteins can modify their growth," stated the leader of the research team, Jan Hejátko.

The experiments with a Brassicaceae plant „thale cress" (Arabidopsis thalliana) led to better understanding of the importance of plant hormones auxins and cytokinins.

The team from Brno has shown, as the first in the world, how the effects of these two hormon types affect each other. Whereas auxins support the creation of new plant organs, cytokinins influence the transport of auxins in plant tissues and therefore determine the features of said organs.

Besides the scientific acknowledgment of the discovery for the university, the project can bring also money. It depends on further work with the discovered knowledge. „We believe that after more applications are developed, we would be able to apply the project also in practice," states Eva Janouškovcová from the university's Technology Transfer Office.

The discovery was made by the experts from the Institute of Experimental Biology of the MU Faculty of Science, in cooperation with the University of Pohang in Korea. The institute has its seat in the new university campus in Bohunice, where modern automatized greenhouses were built for its needs at the cost of more than 20 million CZK. The discovery was already introduced in international scientific press this year.