Nitrogen Fixation in Poplar: Increased Efficiency of Bioenergy Crop Production

该奖项根据 2009 年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法 111-5）提供资助。0930909Doty 生活在植物体内的微生物（内生菌）可以通过增强对病原体和胁迫的抵抗力、提供固定氮、溶解磷酸盐、产生植物激素以及协助环境污染物解毒来显着促进植物生长。杨树和柳树是快速生长的树木，用于生产纸张、木材和生物能源、固碳和污染物的植物修复。 PI已证明，当将一些内生菌添加到不育植物或幼苗中时，植物的生长显着增加。在这项提案中，他们的目的是测试在温室条件下和华盛顿大学可持续林业中心的田间种植的杨树中添加固氮内生菌的有效性。如果这些结果在这些大规模实验中得到证实，这项研究可以提供以廉价、环境可持续的方式促进这种重要生物能源作物生长的方法。该提案的智力价值包括首次对固氮内生菌进行可持续生产生物能源树种的研究。由于迄今为止分离出的许多杨树和柳树内生菌既可以诱导根部快速生长，又可以固定大气中的氮，因此这些内生菌的存在可能对这些树种在贫瘠土壤中的生存和成功建立起至关重要的作用。由于杨树基因组最近已完成测序并且微阵列现已可用，因此拟议对全树规模的固氮内生菌功能进行的研究将为未来进行分子植物-微生物相互作用实验提供更多动力。此外，该项目还提供了一个绝佳的机会来研究不同营养状况引起的杨树化学成分对预处理生物质在生物转化为乙醇过程中的水解性和发酵性的影响。拟议活动产生的更广泛影响包括大力强调科学领域女性的教育和支持。首席研究员和她的 9 名实验室成员中有 7 名是女性科学家，其中包括 1 名博士后、4 名研究生和 2 名本科生。多蒂实验室的种族多元化，包括印度人、中国人、波斯尼亚人、韩国人和西班牙人。该项目将与森林资源学院的其他三名教员启动新的合作，他们是可持续林业中心主任 Greg Ettl、专攻植物生理学的 Soo-Hyung Kim 和专攻木质纤维素生物质生物转化为乙醇的 Renata Bura。为了进一步增加我们项目的种族多样性，PI 将通过华盛顿大学少数族裔项目寻找本科生研究人员。华盛顿大学本科生研究计划为学生提供了一个在大学展示他们的研究的论坛，并为在科学会议上展示他们的数据提供了经济援助。作为国际杨树委员会的活跃成员，Doty 博士与世界各地的杨树和柳树用户有着直接的联系，以确保该项目中产生的知识将被及时利用，以促进人工林的生长，而不会对环境造成损害。 Doty 博士正在与 GreenWood Resources 总裁 Brian Stanton 合作，后者愿意利用内生菌来促进其种植园中杨树的生长。因此，这项研究可能对杨树的生长产生直接影响，以用于各种应用，包括纸浆生产和生物能源。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).0930909DotyMicroorganisms that live within plants (endophytes) can dramatically enhance plant growth by increasing resistance to pathogens and stress, providing fixed nitrogen, solubilizing phosphate, producing plant hormones, and assisting in detoxification of environmental pollutants. Poplar and willow are fast-growing trees that are used for the production of paper, lumber, and bioenergy, for carbon sequestration, and for phytoremediation of pollutants. The PIs have demonstrated that when some of the endophytes are added to sterile plants or seedlings, the growth of the plants is significantly increased. In this proposal, they aim to test the effectiveness of adding nitrogen-fixing endophytes to poplar grown in greenhouse conditions and on a field site at the UW Center for Sustainable Forestry. If these results are demonstrated in these large-scale experiments, this research could provide the means of increasing the growth of this important bioenergy crop in an inexpensive, environmentally-sustainable manner. The intellectual merits of the proposal include the first study of nitrogen-fixing endophytes for sustainable production of a bioenergy tree species. Since many of the poplar and willow endophytes isolated so far can both induce rapid root growth and fix atmospheric nitrogen, the presence of these endophytes may have a vital role in the survival and successful establishment of these tree species in poor soils. Since the poplar genome was recently sequenced and microarrays are now available, the proposed study into the functions of diazotrophic endophytes on a whole-tree scale will provide more incentive for future molecular plant-microbe interaction experiments to be conducted. In addition, this project provides an excellent opportunity to study the effects of chemical composition of poplar trees induced by different nutrient regimes on hydrolysability and fermentability of pretreated biomass during the bioconversion to ethanol process. The broader impacts resulting from the proposed activity include a strong emphasis on education and support for women in science. The Principal Investigator and 7 of her 9 lab members are female scientists, including one post-doc, 4 graduate students, and 2 undergraduates. The Doty Lab is ethnically diverse including Indian, Chinese, Bosnian, Korean, and Hispanic personnel. This project would initiate new collaborations with three other faculty members in the College of Forest Resources, Greg Ettl, Director of the Center for Sustainable Forestry, Soo-Hyung Kim, specializing in plant physiology and Renata Bura, specializing in bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol. To further increase the ethnic diversity in our programs, the PIs will seek undergraduate researchers through the UW Minority Program. The UW Undergraduate Research Program provides a forum for students to present their research at the University, and financial assistance to present their data at scientific conferences. As an active member of the International Poplar Commission, Dr. Doty has direct connections to users of poplar and willow around the world to insure that the knowledge generated in this project will be utilized promptly to increase plantation tree growth without harm to the environment. Dr. Doty is collaborating with Brian Stanton, president of GreenWood Resources, who would be willing to use endophytes as a way to increase poplar growth in his plantations. Therefore, this research could have direct impacts on poplar growth for a variety of applications including pulp production and bioenergy.