Research Initiation Award - Cellulosic Ethanol Production from Major Feedstocks: Insights from Yeast Transcriptomics

历史上的黑人学院和大学本科生计划（HBCU-UP）研究启动奖（RIAs）为HBCU的STEM初级教师提供支持，他们开始建立研究计划，以及职业生涯中期的教师，他们可能在担任行政职务或需要重新定向和重建研究计划后返回教师队伍。教师可以在他们的家乡机构，在NSF资助的中心，在研究密集型机构或在国家实验室进行研究。RIA项目预计将有助于进一步提高教师的研究能力和效率，改善他或她的家乡机构的研究和教学，并让本科生参与研究经验。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，奥尔康州立大学（ASU）将进行旨在了解主要原料纤维素乙醇生产的研究。这项研究将用于加强ASU的教学和学习，因此，PI将获得酵母转录组学方面的实践培训，PI希望将其用作优化其他生物产品生产的工具。奥尔康州立大学是一所赠地的少数民族大学，最近包括了一个专门的生物能源项目，以使其农业课程和研究组合多样化。这项研究将补充奥尔康州立大学正在进行的生物能源计划。 目前，奥尔康州立大学没有从事“组学”研究的研究人员，这将确保奥尔康的研究组合的扩大。研究和教育工作将有助于大学的目标，以增加少数民族学生获得学士学位的STEM领域的数量。该项目将允许PI将基因组学研究纳入其未来的项目中，并允许学生获得实践研究和培训。从这项研究中获得的技能不仅有助于学生为纤维素乙醇和生物燃料研究的职业生涯做好准备，而且对他们的研究生教育和/或职业生涯也很有价值。该研究的目的是描述S.酿酒酵母和使用它作为代理解码的主要原料对整体乙醇生产的影响。具体而言，该项目旨在从四种主要原料（即玉米秸秆、柳枝稷、自由大芒草（FGM）和杂交白杨）的纤维素发酵中进行酵母转录组学分析。本研究结果将为S.酿酒酵母在发酵过程中的转录组学行为。这项研究有可能从酵母基因组学的角度对理解纤维素乙醇生产做出重大贡献，并为未来开发或工程化工业酵母菌株以实现最佳乙醇生产提供基线数据。拟议的RIA研究将补充奥尔康州立大学正在进行的生物能源计划。该项目将与堪萨斯州立大学合作进行。

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) Research Initiation Awards (RIAs) provide support to STEM junior faculty at HBCUs who are starting to build a research program, as well as for mid-career faculty who may have returned to the faculty ranks after holding an administrative post or who need to redirect and rebuild a research program. Faculty members may pursue research at their home institution, at an NSF-funded Center, at a research intensive institution or at a national laboratory. The RIA projects are expected to help further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, to improve research and teaching at his or her home institution, and to involve undergraduate students in research experiences. With support from the National Science Foundation, Alcorn State University (ASU) will conduct research aimed at understanding cellulosic ethanol production from major feedstocks. This research will be used to enhance teaching and learning at ASU and thus, the PI will gain hands-on training in yeast transcriptomics which the PI expects to utilize as a tool in optimizing production of other bioproducts. Alcorn State University, a land-grant minority institution, recently included a dedicated bioenergy program to diversify its agriculture curriculum and research portfolio. This research will complement these ongoing bioenergy initiatives at Alcorn State University. Presently, Alcorn State does not have researchers engaged in "omics" research and this will ensure the expansion of Alcorn's research portfolio. The research and educational efforts will contribute to the University's goal to increase the number of minority students receiving BS degrees in STEM fields. This project will allow the PI to incorporate genomics research in his future projects and students to obtain hands-on research and training. The skills obtained from this research will not only help prepare students for careers in cellulosic ethanol and biofuel research but will be valuable for their graduate education and/or career. The goal of the proposed study is to characterize the transcriptome profile of S. cerevisiae and use it as a proxy to decode the impact of major feedstocks on overall ethanol production. Specifically, this project aims to conduct yeast transcriptomic profiling from cellulosic fermentation of four major feedstocks namely corn stover, switchgrass, Freedom Giant Miscanthus (FGM) and hybrid poplar. Results from this study will provide a blue-print of S. cerevisiae transcriptomic behavior during fermentation. This study has the potential to make significant contributions to understanding cellulosic ethanol production from the perspective of yeast genomics and provide baseline data for future development or engineering of industrial yeast strains for optimal ethanol production. The proposed RIA research will complement ongoing bioenergy initiatives at Alcorn State University. This project will be conducted in collaboration with Kansas State University.