Development of crops for biofuel processing

植物生物质是生产生物燃料等产品的潜在重要的可再生资源。这是因为植物生物质主要由细胞壁组成，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，需要做出协调一致的努力来使细胞壁材料更适合于燃料转化。当细胞壁如何组装以及它们的结构如何影响下游加工的更多信息已知时，将取得进展。拟议的研究旨在确定有用的植物基因靶点，这些靶点在被修改后将导致生物质加工的显着改进。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可以有效转化改性植物生物质的微生物;建立一种独特的互补植物微生物生物质转化方法。我们已经确定，改变细胞壁结构可以改善生物质转化特征，并且各种土壤微生物有能力将植物生物质差异化转化为所需的最终产品。我们的研究计划的成功将使加拿大成为这个新兴市场的强大参与者。从植物生物质中提取的产品有可能提高加拿大自然资源的可持续性和环境质量。特别是，通过抵消化石燃料的使用及其相关排放，预计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.