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Among the potential non-food energy crops, the sugar-rich C4 grass sweet sorghum and the biomass-rich Miscanthus are increasingly considered as two leading candidates. Here, we outline the biological traits of these energy crops for large-scale production in China. We also review recent progress on understanding of plant cell wall composition and wall polymer features of both plant species from large populations that affect both biomass enzymatic digestibility and ethanol conversion rates under various pretreatment conditions. We finally propose genetic approaches to enhance biomass production, enzymatic digestibility and sugar-ethanol conversion efficiency of the energy crops.

Summary: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common malignancy in the world. Recently, scientists have focused on therapeutic strategies to determine the regulation of tumors and design molecules for specific targets. Some studies have demonstrated the clinical significance of human leukocyte antigen G (HLA-G) in malignancy and NLR family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in promoting tumorigenesis in OSCC. This is the first study to investigate whether aberrant epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) induces HLA-G expression through NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated IL-1β secretion in OSCC. Our results showed that the upregulation of NLRP3 inflammasome leads to abundant HLA-G in the cytoplasm and cell membrane of FaDu cells. In addition, we also generated anti-HLA-G chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells and provided evidence for their effects in EGFR-mutated and overexpressed oral cancer. Our results may be integrated with OSCC patient data to translate basic research into clinical significance and may lead to novel EGFR-aberrant OSCC treatment.