The Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research has teamed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture\u2019s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative to fund projects that accelerate plant breeding programs and improve biomass feedstocks by characterizing the genes, proteins, and molecular interactions that influence biomass production.<\/p>\n
Biomass feedstocks are fast-growing trees, shrubs, and grasses that are bred for the specific purpose of producing energy (electricity or liquid fuels) from all or part of the resulting plant. For biofuels to become economically viable as mainstream fuels, the total amount of lignocellulosic biomass produced per acre per year must be maximized, as does the amount of fuel produced per unit of biomass. At the same time, these crops must be environmentally sustainable, requiring far fewer inputs\u2014pesticide and herbicide applications, fertilizer, water, and the use of energy-consuming farm equipment\u2014than are needed, for example, for the corn and soybean crops currently used to produce ethanol and biodiesel.<\/p>\n
Major agricultural crops grown today for food, feed, and fiber in the United States have not been bred for biofuels, so many carefully selected traits\u2014such as a high ratio of seed to straw production\u2014are disadvantageous in biofuel production. However, significant advances in breeding, molecular genetics, and genomic technologies provide an opportunity to build upon the existing knowledge base of plant biology to be able to confidently predict and manipulate the biological function of biomass feedstocks for bioenergy resources.<\/p>\n
To capitalize on this potential, DOE and USDA initiated a competitive grant program in 2006 to support fundamental research in biomass genomics. Ultimately, the research seeks to develop and demonstrate environmentally acceptable crops and cropping systems for producing large quantities of low-cost, high-quality biomass feedstocks.
\nProgram Goal<\/p>\n
The overall goal is genomics-based research leading to improved use of biomass and plant feedstocks for the production of fuels such as ethanol or renewable chemical feedstocks. Specific goals include<\/p>\n
Improve biomass characteristics, biomass yield, or sustainability, water and nitrogen use efficiency
\nUnderstand carbon partitioning and nutrient cycling in feedstocks
\nEnhance fundamental knowledge of structure, function, and organization of feedstock plant genomes
\nEnable plants to be efficiently bred or manipulated for such use<\/p>\n
Evolution of the Program’s Scope<\/p>\n
The USDA-DOE Joint Program supports basic research including: regulation of gene networks, proteins, and metabolites; comparative genomics; systems biology; and integration of genomics with more traditional approaches. With each funding year, the program’s scope has evolved to address different research areas. See focus areas by year(s) listed below.
\n2016 [2016 Awards]<\/p>\n
Genomics-based research to identify and functionally characterize plant genes\/alleles influencing plant response to pathogens, with a long-term focus on crop improvement
\nGenomics-based research to identify and functionally characterize plant genes\/alleles influencing agronomic, yield, and quality traits of non-food oilseed crops<\/p>\n
2015 [2015 Awards]<\/p>\n
Discovery and characterization of key plant genes\/alleles that confer disease resistance\/tolerance
\nDevelop regionally adapted bioenergy feedstock cultivars with enhanced biomass yield and resistance\/tolerance to pathogens<\/p>\n
2013-2014 [2013 Awards; 2014 Awards]<\/p>\n
Characterizing the genes, proteins, and molecular interactions that influence lignocellulosic biomass production and oil seed characteristics
\nComplex interactions between bioenergy feedstocks and the environment
\nDevelop regionally adapted bioenergy feedstock cultivars<\/p>\n
2011-2012 [2011 Awards; 2012 Awards]<\/p>\n
Phenotyping for gene\/allele discovery
\nPhenomics (genotype-to-phenotype)<\/p>\n
2009-2010 [2009 Awards; 2010 Awards]<\/p>\n
Regulatory mechanisms for carbon partitioning and nutrient cycling<\/p>\n
2008 [2008 Awards]<\/p>\n
Regulatory mechanisms necessary for feedstock manipulation
\nSustainability and environmental stresses
\nComparative analysis and bioinformatics<\/p>\n
2006-2007 [2006 Awards; 2007 Awards]<\/p>\n
Regulatory mechanisms of lignocellulose and cell wall maintenance
\nGenetic markers
\nGenome organization
\nModel plants<\/p>\n
BER Program Manager for USDA-DOE Plant Feedstock Genomics Program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research has teamed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture\u2019s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative to fund projects that accelerate plant breeding programs and improve biomass feedstocks by characterizing the genes, proteins, and molecular interactions that influence biomass production. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[13556,5818,5842],"supplier":[8400,11236,4844],"class_list":["post-49577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioenergy","tag-biofuel","tag-biomass","supplier-usda","supplier-u-s-department-of-energy","supplier-us-department-of-energy-joint-genome-institute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49577"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=49577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}