WP4 will (1) mine transcriptomic data from maize and Arabidopsis for lignin biosynthesis genes, including transcription factors in order to (2) make gene silencing or overexpression constructs for maize and Miscanthus transformation to improve biomass for saccharification potential. (3) WP4 will reveal novel aromatic pathways and obtain insight into altered fluxes through these pathways, by profiling the aromatic metabolome of a set of maize mutants with altered lignifications and by integration of the data with transcript profiling data.

WP4 Leader:  Prof Wout Boerjan (P12: VIB, Belgium)