Nitrogen Fixation in Poplar: Increased Efficiency of Bioenergy Crop Production

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。0930909 DotyMicroorganisms生活在植物（内生菌）可以通过增加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，并协助环境污染物的解毒来显着促进植物生长。白杨和杨柳是快速生长的树木，用于生产纸张，木材和生物能源，用于碳封存和污染物的植物修复。PI已经证明，当将一些内生菌添加到不育植物或幼苗中时，植物的生长显著增加。在这项提案中，他们的目标是测试在温室条件下和华盛顿大学可持续林业中心的实地种植的白杨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，环境可持续的方式增加这种重要生物能源作物的生长的方法。该提案的知识价值包括首次研究固氮内生菌可持续生产生物能源树种。由于许多白杨和杨柳内生菌分离到目前为止，既可以诱导快速根系生长和固定大气氮，这些内生菌的存在可能有这些树种在贫瘠的土壤中的生存和成功建立至关重要的作用。由于白杨基因组最近测序和微阵列现在可用，提出的研究固氮内生菌的功能，在整个树的规模将提供更多的激励未来的分子植物-微生物相互作用实验进行。此外，该项目提供了一个很好的机会，研究不同的营养制度诱导的白杨的化学组成对预处理的生物质的水解性和发酵性的生物转化为乙醇的过程中的影响。拟议活动产生的更广泛影响包括大力强调教育和支持妇女参与科学。首席研究员和她的9名实验室成员中的7名是女性科学家，包括1名博士后，4名研究生和2名本科生。Doty实验室的人员种族多样，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师开展新的合作，Greg Ettl，可持续林业中心主任，Soo-Hyung Kim，专门从事植物生理学和Renata Bura，专门从事木质纤维素生物质生物转化为乙醇。为了进一步增加我们计划的种族多样性，PI将通过UW少数民族计划寻求本科研究人员。华盛顿大学本科研究计划为学生提供了一个论坛，让他们在大学里展示自己的研究，并提供经济援助，在科学会议上展示他们的数据。作为国际白杨委员会的积极成员，Doty博士与世界各地的白杨和杨柳用户有着直接的联系，以确保该项目产生的知识将被迅速利用，以增加种植园树木的生长，而不会对环境造成危害。多蒂博士正在与格林伍德资源公司的总裁布赖恩·斯坦顿合作，他愿意使用内生菌作为一种增加白杨在他的种植园中生长的方法。因此，这项研究可能对白杨生长产生直接影响，用于纸浆生产和生物能源等各种应用。

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.