Physical mutagenesis of the bioenergy species Arundo donax L.

Arundo donax L. (giant reed) is a perennial C3 Poaceae species of emerging interest for bioenergy and phytoremediation exploitation (Fig. 1). Recent investigations highlighted its high efficiency as to carbon accumulation and biomass production (>40 t of dry matter ha-1 year-1; Angelini et al. 2008), and for second generation bioethanol production. A. donax completely lacks sexual reproduction and only propagates vegetatively. As a consequence, very little genetic variation is found between naturally occurring ecotypes, precluding any possibility to implement breeding program based on selection (Mariani et al. 2010, Hardion et al. 2012).