Journal of Energy Bioscience 2025, Vol.16, No.3, 151-162 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/jeb 151 Review Article Open Access Review of Breeding Maize Varieties for Biofuel Production WeiWang Institute of Life Science, Jiyang College of Zhejiang AandF University, Zhuji, 311800, China Corresponding email: wei.tina.wang@jicat.org Journal of Energy Bioscience, 2025, Vol.16, No.3 doi: 10.5376/jeb.2025.16.0015 Received: 28 Apr., 2025 Accepted: 03 Jun., 2025 Published: 20 Jun., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Wang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Wang W., 2025, Review of breeding maize varieties for biofuel production, Journal of Energy Bioscience, 16(3): 151-162 (doi: 10.5376/jeb.2025.16.0015) Abstract Maize is an important crop for both food and energy worldwide. In recent years, research has focused on breeding maize varieties suitable for biofuel production. This study summarizes some of the progress made in breeding "dual-purpose maize." The grain and stalk yield of maize are usually positively related. There is a self-pollinating variety called Quality Protein Maize (QPM) that performs well. It has a good lignocellulose structure, high yield, and an ideal cellulose/lignin ratio, making it very suitable for biofuel production. The research also discusses the application of metabolic engineering and genomics in breeding. Techniques like marker-assisted selection, phenomics, and doubled haploid breeding are mentioned. The study talks about the sustainability of traditional and modern maize varieties in terms of environmental and farming management, even with low input, to meet the demand for both food and energy. Keywords Maize breeding; Biofuel; Dual-purpose varieties; Stalk yield; Genetic diversity; QPM; Sustainable agriculture 1 Introduction Traditional fossil fuels are becoming scarcer and causing serious environmental pollution. Because of this, many countries are actively looking for new and cleaner energy sources. Biofuels are a renewable energy source that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ease the problem of energy shortages. This is why biofuels have gained a lot of attention. Especially around the world, the production and use of biofuels has become one of the key methods to promote green development and achieve carbon neutrality (Serrano et al., 2014; Choudhary et al., 2020). Maize is a high-yield, adaptable, and biomass-rich crop that is widely used as a bioenergy crop worldwide. In addition to its food and feed uses, maize kernels and stover can also provide a large amount of raw materials for biofuel production (Lorenz et al., 2010; Choudhary et al., 2020; Pratikshya et al., 2025). Maize kernels are mainly used to produce bioethanol, while agricultural waste such as stover can be used as a feedstock for second-generation biofuels (Choudhary et al., 2020; Munaiz et al., 2021). Maize has rich genetic diversity and a good breeding base, which provides strong support for the breeding of specialized varieties with high yield, high biomass and high conversion efficiency (Lorenz et al., 2010; Munaiz et al., 2021). With the development of technology, such as molecular breeding, gene editing and metabolic engineering, the breeding goals and methods of maize are becoming more and more diverse (Barrière et al., 2016; Li et al., 2022). This study mainly sorted out the breeding progress and current challenges of maize in the field of biofuels, reviewed the changes in the global energy landscape and the development background of the biofuel industry, summarized the main goals of maize for biofuel breeding, and introduced the application of different methods such as traditional breeding, molecular markers, gene editing and metabolic engineering, analyzed the main problems currently existing, and looked forward to future research directions. 2 Types of Biofuels and Maize Utilization 2.1 Overview of first-generation (starch-based) and second-generation (lignocellulosic-based) biofuels Biofuels can be roughly divided into two types based on the raw materials and production methods: first-generation and second-generation. First-generation biofuels are made from food crops, usually by fermenting starch or sugars into ethanol. Maize is commonly used for this because it has a high starch content. In the U.S.,
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