Plant genetic advance could lead to more efficient conversion of plant biomass to biofuels, reveals a new study.
Plant geneticists including Sam Hazen at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Siobhan Brady at the University of California, Davis, have sorted out the gene regulatory networks that control cell wall thickening by the synthesis of the three polymers, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.
New Metabolic Pathway to More Efficiently Convert Sugars into Biofuels Developed By UCLA Engineers
A new synthetic metabolic pathway for breaking down glucose that could lead to a 50 percent increase in the production of biofuels was created by UCLA chemical engineering researchers.
Advertisement
The authors stated that the most rigid of the polymers, lignin, represents "a major impediment" to extracting sugars from plant biomass that can be used to make biofuels.
Their genetic advance has been expected to "serve as a foundation for understanding the regulation of a complex, integral plant component" and as a map for how future researchers might manipulate the polymer-forming processes to improve the efficiency of biofuel production.
![Researcher Use Algae to Make Nanocellulose for Biofuels]( "Researcher Use Algae to Make Nanocellulose for Biofuels")
Behind a new project, scientists believed that they have reached an advanced stage in their effort to turn algae into solar-powered factories for producing the wonder material nanocellulose.
The three key components, found in plant tissues known as xylem, provide plants with mechanical strength and waterproof cells that transport water. Working in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, Hazen, Brady and colleagues explored how a large number of interconnected transcription factors regulate xylem and cell wall thickening.
They also found that each cell-wall gene in the xylem regulatory network was bound by an average of five different transcription factors from 35 distinct families of regulatory proteins. Further, many of the transcription factors form a surprisingly large number of feed-forward loops that co-regulate target genes.
In other words, rather than a series of on-off switches that leads to an ultimate action like making cellulose, most of the proteins including regulators of cell cycle and differentiation bind directly to cellulose genes and to other transcription regulators. This gives plants a huge number of possible combinations for responding and adapting to environmental stress such as salt or drought, the authors point out.
While this study could identify interactive nodes, the techniques used were not able to let the authors determine exactly what types of feed forward loops are present in the xylem regulatory network. However, the work offers a framework for future research that should allow researchers to identify ways to manipulate this network and engineer energy crops for biofuel production.
Source: ANI
Researcher Use Algae to Make Nanocellulose for Biofuels
Behind a new project, scientists believed that they have reached an advanced stage in their effort to turn algae into solar-powered factories for producing the wonder material nanocellulose.
Advertisement
The three key components, found in plant tissues known as xylem, provide plants with mechanical strength and waterproof cells that transport water. Working in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, Hazen, Brady and colleagues explored how a large number of interconnected transcription factors regulate xylem and cell wall thickening.
They also found that each cell-wall gene in the xylem regulatory network was bound by an average of five different transcription factors from 35 distinct families of regulatory proteins. Further, many of the transcription factors form a surprisingly large number of feed-forward loops that co-regulate target genes.
In other words, rather than a series of on-off switches that leads to an ultimate action like making cellulose, most of the proteins including regulators of cell cycle and differentiation bind directly to cellulose genes and to other transcription regulators. This gives plants a huge number of possible combinations for responding and adapting to environmental stress such as salt or drought, the authors point out.
While this study could identify interactive nodes, the techniques used were not able to let the authors determine exactly what types of feed forward loops are present in the xylem regulatory network. However, the work offers a framework for future research that should allow researchers to identify ways to manipulate this network and engineer energy crops for biofuel production.
Source: ANI
Researchers Find Untapped Source of Biofuels in Seeds of Indian Trees
Indian researchers have identified an untapped source of biofuels after finding that seeds from mahua and sal trees may be as good as biodiesel.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Latest Research News
Integrated structural biology helps discover how the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) works.
Link between advanced paternal age and higher risks for reproductive and offspring medical problems has been discovered.
Can gene astrology predict disease risk? Yes, your genes can determine your future health and disease risk.
Injury to the white matter explains why football players are at an increased risk for cognitive and behavioral problems later in life.
Located at the South Col, the rocky area between Mount Everest and Lhotse serves as the final campsite for climbers as well as a frozen legacy of hardy microbes.
