Genetic diversity of Miscanthus sacchariflorus

Miscanthus is a perennial C4 grass native to East Asia that is being developed as a biomass crop for bioenergy and bioproducts. M. sacchariflorus is one of the parent species of the hybrid M. xgiganteus, which is currently the type of Miscanthus most widely grown for biomass. To improve breeding resources for Miscanthus, we characterized genetic and phenotypic diversity in a large collection of M. sacchariflorus and M. xgiganteus across its native range in China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia.