Development of crops for biofuel processing

植物生物量是一种潜在的重要可再生资源，可用于生产生物燃料等产品。这是因为植物生物量主要由细胞壁组成，细胞壁本身富含糖，可以很容易地发酵成酒精。为了使生物质转化具有成本效益，需要共同努力使细胞壁材料更适合燃料转化。当更多关于细胞壁如何组装及其结构如何影响下游加工的信息被了解时，将会取得进展。提出的研究旨在确定有用的植物基因靶点，当这些靶点被修改后，将导致生物质加工的重大改进。我们将通过使用最先进的遗传筛选方法和分子生物学技术来实现这一目标。我们的方法还将包括分离能够有效转化改性植物生物量的微生物；建立一种独特的植物-微生物生物质转化的互补方法。我们已经确定，改变细胞壁结构可以改善生物质转化特性，并且各种土壤微生物具有将植物生物质转化为理想最终产品的能力。我们研究项目的成功将使加拿大在这个新兴市场中成为一个强有力的参与者。从植物生物量中提取的产品有可能改善加拿大自然资源的可持续性和环境质量。特别是，预计通过抵消化石燃料的使用及其相关排放，这些产品将有助于清洁空气和水。

Plant biomass is a potentially important renewable resource for the production of products such as biofuels. This is because plant biomass is composed primarily of cell walls, which are themselves rich in sugars that can be easily fermented to alcohols. In order to make biomass conversion cost-effective, concerted efforts need to be made to make the cell wall material more amenable to fuel conversion. Progress will be made when additional information regarding how cell walls are assembled and how their structure influences downstream processing is known. The proposed research aims to identify useful plant gene targets that, when modified, will lead to significant improvements in biomass processing. We will achieve this by using state of the art genetic screening methods and molecular biology techniques. Our approach will also include the isolation of microorganisms that can efficiently convert the modified plant biomass; establishing a unique complementary plant-microbe approach for biomass conversion. We have already established that altered cell wall structure can lead to improved biomass conversion characteristics and that various soil microbes have the ability to differentially convert plant biomass into desirable end products. The success of our research program will position Canada as a strong player in this emerging market. Products derived from plant biomass have the potential to improve the sustainability of Canada's natural resources and environmental quality. In particular, it is expected that by offsetting fossil fuel use and their related emissions, these products will contribute to cleaner air and water.