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Introduction
Joint BioEnergy Institute
http://www.jbei.org/
Publications
Publications (100)
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is considered a sustainable biofuel feedstock, given its fast-impact growth, low input requirements, and high biomass yields. Improvements in bioenergy conversion efficiency of switchgrass could be made by reducing its lignin content. Engineered switchgrass that expresses a bacterial 3-dehydroshikimate dehydratase...
Although primarily studied in relation to photorespiration, serine metabolism in chloroplasts may play a key role in plant CO2 fertilization responses by linking CO2 assimilation with growth. Here, we show that the phosphorylated serine pathway is part of a ‘photosynthetic C1 pathway’ and demonstrate its high activity in foliage of a C3 tree where...
Background
Lignin is an aromatic polymer deposited in secondary cell walls of higher plants to provide strength, rigidity, and hydrophobicity to vascular tissues. Due to its interconnections with cell wall polysaccharides, lignin plays important roles during plant growth and defense, but also has a negative impact on industrial processes aimed at o...
Introduction
Studying plant-microbe interactions is one of the key elements in understanding the path to sustainable agricultural practices. These interactions play a crucial role in ensuring survival of healthy plants, soil and microbial communities. Many platforms have been developed over the years to isolate these highly complex interactions how...
The industrial amino acid production workhorse, Corynebacterium glutamicum naturally produces low levels of 2,3,5,6-tetramethylpyrazine (TMP), a valuable flavor, fragrance, and commodity chemical. Here, we demonstrate TMP production (∼0.8 g L−1) in C. glutamicum type strain ATCC13032 via overexpression of acetolactate synthase and/or α-acetolactate...
The rhizosphere constitutes a dynamic interface between plant hosts and their associated microbial communities. Despite the acknowledged potential for enhancing plant fitness by manipulating the rhizosphere, the engineering of the rhizosphere microbiome through inoculation has posed significant challenges. These challenges are thought to arise from...
Modification of lignin in feedstocks via genetic engineering aims to reduce biomass recalcitrance to facilitate efficient conversion processes. These improvements can be achieved by expressing exogenous enzymes that interfere with native biosynthetic pathways responsible for the production of the lignin precursors. In-planta expression of a 3-dehyd...
Switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum L.) is considered a sustainable biofuel feedstock, given its fast-growth, low input requirements, and high biomass yields. Improvements in bioenergy conversion efficiency of switchgrass could be made by reducing its lignin content. Engineered switchgrass that expresses a bacterial 3-dehydroshikimate dehydratase (QsuB)...
As atmospheric CO2 rises, increases in photosynthesis and plant growth are routinely documented across ecosystems globally. Although primarily studied in relation to photorespiration, serine metabolism in chloroplasts may play a key role in plant CO2 fertilization responses by linking CO2 assimilation with growth. However, little information is ava...
Many insects have evolved the ability to manipulate plant growth to generate extraordinary structures called galls, in which insect larva can develop while being sheltered and feeding on the plant. In particular, cynipid (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) wasps have evolved to form morphologically complex galls and generate an astonishing array of gall shape...
Background
The industrial amino acid production workhorse, Corynebacterium glutamicum naturally produces low levels of 2,3,5,6-tetramethylpyrazine (TMP), a valuable flavor, fragrance and commodity chemical. We have previously reported serendipitous production of TMP in C. glutamicum strains. In the present study, we demonstrate TMP production in C....
Biomass‐derived deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been introduced as promising pretreatment and fractionation solvents because of their mild processing conditions, easy synthesis, and green solvent components from biomass. In recent DES studies, solvent‐based third constituents like water, ethanol, and others improve the processibility of typical...
Biofuels represent a promising path toward a future less reliant on fossil fuels. One reason why is because the components to generate biofuels can be found in ordinary waste, such as compost, where degradative microbes unleash the energy-dense sugars found in plant matter. While scouting for the hungriest degraders marks one way of boosting biofue...
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a promising perennial bioenergy crop that achieves high yields with relatively low nutrient and energy inputs. Modification of cell wall composition for reduced recalcitrance can lower the costs of deconstructing biomass to fermentable sugars and other intermediates. We have engineered overexpression of OsAT10,...
Biomass-derived deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been introduced as promising pretreatment and fractionation solvents because of their mild processing conditions, easy synthesis, and green solvent components from biomass. In recent DES studies, solvent-based third constituents like water, ethanol, and others improve the processibility of typical...
Many insects have evolved the ability to manipulate plant growth to generate extraordinary structures called galls in which insect larva can develop while being sheltered within and feeding on the plant. In particular, Cynipid (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) wasps have evolved to form some of the most morphologically complex galls known and generate an as...
Building a stronger bioeconomy requires production capabilities that are largely generated through microbial genetic engineering. Plant feedstocks can additionally be genetically engineered to generate desirable feedstock traits and provide precursors...
Background
Lignocellulosic resources are promising feedstocks for the manufacture of bio-based products and bioenergy. However, the inherent recalcitrance of biomass to conversion into simple sugars currently hinders the deployment of advanced bioproducts at large scale. Lignin is a primary contributor to biomass recalcitrance as it protects cell w...
Background
Plant cell walls are interwoven structures recalcitrant to degradation. Native and adapted microbiomes can be particularly effective at plant cell wall deconstruction. Although most understanding of biological cell wall deconstruction has been obtained from isolates, cultivated microbiomes that break down cell walls have emerged as new s...
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c01160.].
The economic and environmental sustainability of lignocellulosic biomass biorefineries is predicated on generating biofuels and bioproducts from cell-wall polysaccharide and lignin polymers. Historical efforts in plant genetic engineering have focused on the development of strategies that facilitate biomass deconstruction, with more recently effort...
Engineering bioenergy crops to accumulate value-added coproducts in planta is an attractive approach to increasing the value of lignocellulosic biomass and enabling a sustainable bioeconomy. In this study, we engineered sorghum with a bacterial gene encoding a dehydroshikimate dehydratase (qsuB) to convert the endogenous pool of 3-dehydroshikimate...
Engineering bioenergy crops to accumulate coproducts in planta can increase the value of lignocellulosic biomass and enable a sustainable bioeconomy. In this study, we engineered sorghum with a bacterial gene encoding a chorismate pyruvate-lyase (ubiC) to reroute the plastidial pool of chorismate from the shikimate pathway into the valuable compoun...
Plants and microbes share common metabolic pathways for producing a range of bioproducts that are potentially foundational to the future bioeconomy. However, in planta accumulation and microbial production of bioproducts have never been systematically compared on an economic basis to identify optimal routes of production. A detailed technoeconomic...
Renewed interests in the development of bioenergy, biochemicals, and biomaterials have elicited new strategies for engineering the lignin of biomass feedstock plants. This study shows, for the first time, that 3,4‐dihydroxybenzoate (DHB) is compatible with the radical coupling reactions that assemble polymeric lignin in plants.
We introduced a bact...
Lignin is considered to represent the second most abundant terrestrial biopolymer next to cellulose. Although quite variable across vascular plants, its content can account for up to 30% of total biomass in certain woody species. Lignin plays important roles in plants, but often represents hurdles to the utilization of cellulosic biomass in differe...
Plant cell walls are interwoven structures recalcitrant to degradation. Both native and adapted microbiomes are particularly effective at plant cell wall deconstruction. Studying these deconstructive microbiomes provides an opportunity to assess microbiome performance and relate it to specific microbial populations and enzymes. To establish a syste...
Background
The development of bioenergy crops with reduced recalcitrance to enzymatic degradation represents an important challenge to enable the sustainable production of advanced biofuels and bioproducts. Biomass recalcitrance is partly attributed to the complex structure of plant cell walls inside which cellulose microfibrils are protected by a...
Integrating multidisciplinary research in plant genetic engineering and renewable deep eutectic solvents (DESs) can facilitate a sustainable and economic biorefinery. Herein, we leveraged a plant genetic engineering approach to specifically incorporate C6C1 monomers into the lignin structure. By expressing the bacterial ubiC gene in sorghum, p‐hydr...
Cell-wall-bound (CWB) aromatics such as ferulate and p-coumarate play important physiological roles in plant development and response to stresses. Their presence also poses some challenges and opportunities during processing of plant biomass in various agro-industrial applications. To this end, we have developed a robust high-throughput reversed-ph...
Lignocellulosic biomass represents a renewable source of sugars for the manufacturing of bioproducts such as biofuels. The high cost associated with deconstruction of plant biomass to simple sugars remains one of the challenges preventing the deployment of economically sustainable advanced bioproducts. The accumulation in-planta of value-added copr...
Pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid (PDC), a chemically stable intermediate that naturally occurs during microbial degradation of lignin by bacteria, represents a promising building block for diverse biomaterials and polyesters such as biodegradable plastics. The lack of a chemical synthesis method has hindered large-scale utilization of PDC and metabolic...
Background
Lignin deposited in plant cell walls negatively affects biomass conversion into advanced bioproducts. There is therefore a strong interest in developing bioenergy crops with reduced lignin content or altered lignin structures. Another desired trait for bioenergy crops is the ability to accumulate novel bioproducts, which would enhance th...
Abstract Industrial crops are grown to produce goods for manufacturing. Rather than food and feed, they supply raw materials for making biofuels, pharmaceuticals, and specialty chemicals, as well as feedstocks for fabricating fiber, biopolymer, and construction materials. Therefore, such crops offer the potential to reduce our dependency on petroch...
Lignin is the primary contributor to the high cost of biofuel-production from lignocellulosic biomass. In order to study lignin removal and the release of aromatic monomers, we applied hydrocracking and ionic liquid pretreatments on Arabidopsis thaliana biomass from both wild type (WT) and a mutant (CAD cxd) defective in two cinnamyl alcohol dehydr...
The complex and heterogeneous polyphenolic structure of lignin confers recalcitrance to plant cell walls and challenges biomass processing for agroindustrial applications. Recently, significant efforts have been made to alter lignin composition to overcome its inherent intractability. In this work, to overcome technical difficulties related to biom...
Covering: Up to 2019
Phenolic cross-links and phenolic inter-unit linkages result from the oxidative coupling of two hydroxycinnamates or two molecules of tyrosine. Free dimers of hydroxycinnamates, lignans, play important roles in plant defence. Cross-linking of bound phenolics in the plant cell wall affects cell expansion, wall strength, digestib...
Significance
Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have gained increasing attention due to their application-friendly properties, including universal solvating capabilities and wide tunability. Additionally, ease of synthesis and broad availability from inexpensive chemical components could render DESs more versatile solvents for biomass pretreatment, as c...
Clovamide and its analogs are N‐hydroxycinnamoyl‐L‐amino acids (HHA) that exhibit antioxidant activities. For environmental and economic reasons, biological synthesis of these plant‐derived metabolites has garnered interest. In this study, we exploited HDT1, a BAHD acyltransferase recently isolated from red clover, for the production of clovamide a...
Background
Single guide RNA (sgRNA) selection is important for the efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing. However, in plants, the rules governing selection are not well established.
Results
We developed a facile transient assay to screen sgRNA efficiency. We then used it to test top-performing bioinformatically predicted sgRNAs for two...
Plants are an attractive sourceof renewable carbon for conversion to biofuels and bio‐based chemicals. Conversion strategies often use a fraction of the biomass, focusing on sugars from cellulose and hemicellulose. Strategies that use plant components, such as aromatics and amino acids, may improve the efficiency of biomass conversion. Pseudomonas...
The future bioeconomy promises drop-in or performance-advantaged biofuels and bioproducts derived from lignocellulosic biomass, substantial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in sectors with few or no alternatives, and increased domestic energy production in countries with sufficient biomass resources. Despite the slower than anticipated pac...
One of the requirements for efficient biological conversion of lignocellulose to bioproducts is the compatibility of biological catalysts with the processes employed to solubilize and depolymerize the lignocellulosic components. The red yeasts Rhodosporidium toruloides and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa were evaluated for their ability to assimilate suga...
Plant biomass is an attractive source of renewable carbon for conversion to biofuels and bio-based chemicals. Conversion strategies often use a fraction of the total biomass, focusing on sugars from cellulose and hemicellulose. Strategies that use plant components such as plant-derived aromatics and amino acids have the potential to improve the eff...
Background:
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a promising bioenergy feedstock because it can be grown on marginal land and produces abundant biomass. Recalcitrance of the lignocellulosic components of the switchgrass cell wall to enzymatic degradation into simple sugars impedes efficient biofuel production. We previously demonstrated that overe...
Background
We previously developed several strategies to engineer plants to produce cost-efficient biofuels from plant biomass. Engineered Arabidopsis plants with low xylan and lignin content showed normal growth and improved saccharification efficiency under standard growth conditions. However, it remains to be determined whether these engineered...
Muconic acid (MA) is a dicarboxylic acid used for the production of industrially relevant chemicals such as adipic acid, terephthalic acid, and caprolactam. Because the synthesis of these polymer precursors generates toxic intermediates by utilizing petroleum-derived chemicals and corrosive catalysts, the development of alternative strategies for t...
Naturally, many aerobic organisms degrade lignin-derived aromatics through conserved intermediates including protocatechuate and catechol. Employing this microbial approach offers a potential solution for valorizing lignin into valuable chemicals for a potential lignocellulosic biorefinery and enabling bioeconomy. In this study, two hybrid biochemi...
Lignin in plant biomass represents a target for engineering strategies towards the development of a sustainable bioeconomy. In addition to the conventional lignin monomers, namely p-coumaryl, coniferyl and sinapyl alcohols, tricin has been shown to be part of the native lignin polymer in certain monocot species. Because tricin is considered to init...
Supplemental figures.
Figure A. Purity and integrity of the synthesized selgin. (A)
1H NMR spectrum of synthet ic selgin. Chemical shifts (in ppm) were assigned according to the signal of the internal standard CD3OD (d = 3.31 ppm). (B) HPLC-ESI-TOF MS analysis of selgin.
Figure B. Detection of benzodioxane substructures in lignin from bmr12 sorghum...