Background Sugarcane is one of the most crucial energy crops that produces high yields of sugar and lignocellulose. The cellulose crystallinity index (CrI) and lignin are the two kinds of key cell wall features that account for lignocellulose saccharification. Therefore, high-throughput screening of sugarcane germplasm with excellent cell wall features is considered a promising strategy to enhance bagasse digestibility. Recently, there has been research to explore near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) assays for the characterization of the corresponding wall features. However, due to the technical barriers of the offline strategy, it is difficult to apply for high-throughput real-time analyses. This study was therefore initiated to develop a high-throughput online NIRS assay to rapidly detect cellulose crystallinity, lignin content, and their related proportions in sugarcane, aiming to provide an efficient and feasible method for sugarcane cell wall feature evaluation. Results A total of 838 different sugarcane genotypes were collected at different growth stages during 2018 and 2019. A continuous variation distribution of the near-infrared spectrum was observed among these collections. Due to the very large diversity of CrI and lignin contents detected in the collected sugarcane samples, seven high-quality calibration models were developed through online NIRS calibration. All of the generated equations displayed coefficient of determination (R2) values greater than 0.8 and high ratio performance deviation (RPD) values of over 2.0 in calibration, internal cross-validation, and external validation. Remarkably, the equations for CrI and total lignin content exhibited RPD values as high as 2.56 and 2.55, respectively, indicating their excellent prediction capacity. An offline NIRS assay was also performed. Comparable calibration was observed between the offline and online NIRS analyses, suggesting that both strategies would be applicable to estimate cell wall characteristics. Nevertheless, as online NIRS assays offer tremendous advantages for large-scale real-time screening applications, it could be implied that they are a better option for high-throughput cell wall feature prediction. Conclusions This study, as an initial attempt, explored an online NIRS assay for the high-throughput assessment of key cell wall features in terms of CrI, lignin content, and their proportion in sugarcane. Consistent and precise calibration results were obtained with NIRS modeling, insinuating this strategy as a reliable approach for the large-scale screening of promising sugarcane germplasm for cell wall structure improvement and beyond.

Background Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is an economically important crop with stalks as the harvest organs. Improvement in stalk quality is deemed a promising strategy for enhancing sugarcane production. However, the lack of efficient approaches for systematic evaluation of sugarcane germplasm largely limits improvements in stalk quality. This study is designed to develop a systematic near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) assay for high-throughput phenotyping of sugarcane stalk quality, thereby providing a feasible solution for precise evaluation of sugarcane germplasm. Results A total of 628 sugarcane accessions harvested at different growth stages before and after maturity were employed to take a high-throughput assay to determine sugarcane stalk quality. Based on high-performance anion chromatography (HPAEC-PAD), large variations in sugarcane stalk quality were detected in terms of biomass composition and the corresponding fundamental ratios. Online and offline NIRS modeling strategies were applied for multiple purpose calibration with partial least square (PLS) regression analysis. Consequently, 25 equations were generated with excellent determination coefficients (R2) and ratio performance deviation (RPD) values. Notably, for some observations, RPD values as high as 6.3 were observed, which indicated their exceptional performance and predictive capability. Conclusions This study provides a feasible method for consistent and high-throughput assessment of stalk quality in terms of moisture, soluble sugar, insoluble residue and the corresponding fundamental ratios. The proposed method permits large-scale screening of optimal sugarcane germplasm for sugarcane stalk quality breeding and beyond.

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Chiral allylic oxidized products play an increasingly important role in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries. Biocatalytic C–H oxyfunctionalization to synthesize allylic oxidized products has attracted great attention in recent years, with the ability to simplify synthetic approaches toward complex compounds. As a result, scientists have found some new enzymes and mutants through techniques of gene mining and enzyme-directed evolution in recent years. This review summarizes the recent developments in biocatalytic selective oxidation of olefins by different kinds of biocatalysts.

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