Scientists sequester the duckweed genome and discover genes that protect them from parasites

Studying how aquatic plants deal with pollution could be useful to understand how to treat wastewater more efficiently or even to produce biofuels as well as for other biotechnological level applications. This is the purpose of a group of researchers from the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

The researchers sequenced the DNA of the Spirodela, one of the 37 species of water lentils, small aquatic plants that live on the surface of the water and that grow very quickly if they are in the right conditions.

Researchers have identified the genes of these aquatic plants that protect them from a wide range of parasites, both fungi and bacteria.
This study could be useful to make water lentil cultivation even more efficient.

The latter could in fact be used in bioreactors that recycle waste that can help produce drugs and antibiotics as well as to treat agricultural and industrial wastewater.

They can also be used to produce biofuels including ethanol.
And this not to mention that this small seedling can also be a very useful food because it is rich in proteins and minerals, not only for people but also for farm animals.