Named for its global distribution (like ducks) and its rapid growth (like weeds), duckweed was commonly used in lab research from 1950 to 1990 before being largely replaced in the genomics era by thale cress or mouse-ear cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), a model plant in the mustard family that offers facile genetics and a small genome.
But advances in genomic technologies over the past decade and the growing need to find alternative and more sustainable crops have renewed interest in duckweed as a model to enable discoveries in diverse fields from plant biology and ecology to chronobiology.
Researchers from Rutgers, the Salk Institute and an international team of specialists reviewed the anatomy, growth, physiology and molecular characteristics of duckweed, which has unique characteristics compared to other model plants that make them excellent candidates as model plants to tackle complex biological questions. One example is that genome sequences from multiple species of duckweed showed that these aquatic plants have a smaller number of genes compared to other model plant species, which may make duckweed a simpler plant model to characterize each gene's function.
In addition, recent studies published by collaborating teams at Rutgers and the Salk Institute revealed that the smallest member of the duckweed family, Wolffia, may economize its energy for growth by minimizing the level of gene control over the daily day-night cycle.
"We thus suggest that the duckweed plant family is an excellent platform to discover novel strategies for improved plant growth as well as environmental responses to optimize plant resilience and productivity," Lam said.
Although duckweed has adapted to an aquatic habitat, it has all the same types of genes and pathways as in well studied crop plants.
"As such, the novel strategies that we can learn from studying these small plants could potentially be used to re-engineer traditional crop plants to endow them with new traits," Lam said. "Furthermore, as the commercialization of duckweed-based bioproducts gathers steam, we and our co-authors are optimistic that the basic research we are carrying out in the laboratory will help translate duckweed's prodigious productivity into new sustainable crops that can augment traditional agricultural products."