Toyota Motor Corp. has developed technology to analyze the DNA of plants to shorten the time needed to improve varieties of sugar cane — an important component of ethanol production.
The technology, developed with the National Agricultural Research Center for Kyushu Okinawa Region, has shortened the time needed to improve varieties of sugar cane to some four years, about half the time needed under conventional technologies, Toyota said Monday.
The technique has enabled Toyota to identify the positions of genes with desired properties such as those for hiking the plant's sugar content and enhancing its resilience to diseases, and to use the data to create better sugar cane, it said.
Toyota has been developing such analysis technologies to hike crop yields and the efficiency of ethanol production.
Developing a more efficient and higher-yield process to make ethanol would help Japan reduce its dependence on foreign energy sources and at the same time cut emissions.