Research Highlights

The degradation of cellulose, the principal component of plant cell walls, is critical to ecosystem functioning and the global carbon cycle. The primary drivers of plant biomass deconstruction are fungi and bacteria found in the soil or associated with plant-eating eukaryotes.

Native perennial grasslands, which can be planted on marginal lands, are a potential feedstock source for lignocellulosic biofuel production. And yet more information is needed to understand how management practices such as frequency or timing of harvesting can affect their productivity and community composition.

By studying a naturally silenced maize mutant defective in chalcone synthase, a key enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of flavonoids, we demonstrated that levels of tricin-related flavonoids were significantly reduced, resulting in strongly reduced incorporation of tricin into the lignin polymer. These plants also had increased total lignin content and, consequently, demonstrated significantly reduced saccharification.

Adding cover crops to annual maize production systems did not enhance predator communities. And predation levels remained low in comparison to perennial bioenergy crops.

OptSSeq (Optimization by Selection and Sequencing) is a newly developed approach to identifying optimally balanced enzyme levels in synthetic biofuel production pathways. This method couples selection of enzyme expression levels with high-throughput gene sequencing to track enrichment of gene expression elements from a combinatorial library.

To explore the genetic architecture of flowering time, we developed a recombinant inbred line population from a cross between two diverse accessions of the grass Brachypodium distachyon that have different flowering behavior. We then used a genotyping-by-sequencing approach to identify six quantitative trait locis that control differences in flowering time.

We performed genome-wide association studies to characterize the genetic architecture and genes underlying flowering time regulation in switchgrass. We then identified association with flowering time at multiple loci, including in a homolog of the gene FLOWERING LOCUS T and in a locus containing the gene TIMELESS, a homolog of a key circadian regulator in animals.

We collected sorghum stem RNA-seq transcriptome profiles and composition data for approximately 100 days of development beginning at floral initiation. Our analysis identified more than 200 differentially expressed genes involved in stem growth, cell wall biology, and sucrose accumulation.

The production of fuels from lignocellulosic biomass can play an important role in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels while meeting an increasing energy demand. In an effort to meet these goals, regional biomass processing depots have been introduced as a way to improve the biomass supply network.

The effects of variable precipitation on downstream processing and fermentation of biomass to biofuels have not been well studied. This study demonstrates that increased plant soluble sugars produced during drought stress are made into pyrazines and imidazoles during ammonia-based pretreatment and are inhibitory to microbial growth.