Genome-edited trees for high-performance engineered wood
Replacing conventional structural materials with high-performance engineered wood can reduce CO2 emissions and enhance carbon sequestration. Traditional methods involve energy-intensive chemical treatments to reduce lignin content, resulting in denser, mechanically superior wood but raising sustaina...
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Published in | Matter Vol. 7; no. 10; pp. 3658 - 3671 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Elsevier Inc
02.10.2024
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Replacing conventional structural materials with high-performance engineered wood can reduce CO2 emissions and enhance carbon sequestration. Traditional methods involve energy-intensive chemical treatments to reduce lignin content, resulting in denser, mechanically superior wood but raising sustainability concerns. This work introduces a genome-editing approach to reduce lignin in trees, enabling chemical-free processing of advanced engineered wood. Using the cytosine base editor nCas9-A3A/Y130F, the 4CL1 gene in poplar wood was targeted, achieving a 12.8% lignin reduction. This facilitated waste-free densified wood production through water immersion and hot pressing, yielding a tensile strength of 313.6 ± 6.4 MPa, comparable to aluminum alloy 6061. The strength of densified 4CL1 knockout wood closely matched that of traditionally treated wood (320.2 ± 3.5 MPa), demonstrating the effectiveness of genetic modification in creating sustainable, high-performance engineered wood and contributing to reduced CO2 emissions and environmental conservation.
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•Reducing the lignin in polar wood by knocking out the 4CL1 gene•Demonstrating a chemical-free method for processing advanced engineered wood•Densified 4CL1 knockout wood is as strong as densified wood from chemical treatment
We demonstrated a waste-free process for processing engineered wood by reducing the lignin content of poplar wood through 4CL1 knockout technology. The 4CL1 knockout wood shows a 12.8% reduction in lignin content without significant growth changes. By soaking this wood in water and hot pressing, we achieved a tensile strength of 313.6 ± 6.4 MPa, 5.6 times higher than that of natural 4CL1 knockout wood and 1.6 times higher than that of densified wild-type wood. This strength is comparable to chemically treated densified wood (320.2 ± 3.5 MPa). Our method eliminates chemical delignification, offering a cost-effective, eco-friendly alternative for producing densified wood. This success highlights genome editing’s potential to create other engineered wood materials with enhanced properties, contributing to a CO2-negative bioeconomy by providing renewable alternatives to traditional materials.
Conventional delignification uses chemicals that consume a lot of energy and create significant waste, posing sustainability issues. By using genome-edited poplar trees with lower lignin content, we can skip the chemical delignification process. This innovative approach reduces environmental impact and offers a more sustainable solution for processing engineered wood. |
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ISSN: | 2590-2385 2590-2385 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.matt.2024.07.003 |