博文
佛罗里达大学获得基金资助研究树木品质改良基因以生产生物燃油
|||
王应宽编译
2009-08-17
UTC-6 CST
UMN, St Paul
佛罗里达大学获得基金资助研究树木品质改良基因
以生产生物燃油
佛罗里达大学的研究人员新发现一种基因将成为采用林木生物质高效生产燃料乙醇的关键。所发现的这种基因，有助于调节树木的生长和木材纤维的组成，可能有助于培育出适于生产生物燃油和造纸的改良树种。并因此得到643万美元的联邦基金资助，继续开展此项研究。
项目组将研究这种基因如何有助于调节细胞壁的化学组成和结构以及在何时何地发生。最终通过转基因工程培养改良树种，来调节木材的组成成分和生物质的生长。
纤维素容易分解为葡萄糖，然后发酵生产燃料乙醇。因此，希望培育高纤维素低木质素的树种，以便于生产燃料乙醇。同时，这种树叶有利于造纸。
Kirst的研究生Evandro Novaes从杨树里发现和分离出一种基因Cpg13，代表在染色体13上面碳的分解和生长，对木材成分和生物质生长起着关键作用。研究还发现，高纤维素含量的树种生长很快。研究很可能培育出“高纤维素低木质素”的新树种，快速为生产生物燃油和造纸提供大量优质的原料。
还可能研究培育出树木枝干纤维素含量高而根部木质素含量高的树种。研究还表明，氮肥对调节杨树生物质组分和生长具有显著影响。营业与基因的相互作用研究将会对人类的健康产生影响。
博主感慨：
2002年，中国成为世界上第一个批准商业化种植转基因树的国家，目前拥有世界上释放面积最大的转基因林木的林地。目前，中国已掌握了杨树、桦树、桉树、落叶松、核桃、橘子、苹果、猕猴桃等多树种组织培养技术和外源基因转化技术，建立了多树种组织培养和遗传转化系统；已进行转化的基因主要包括抗虫、抗病、抗除草剂、抗逆境（包括耐盐、耐旱、耐冷、耐高温等）、生殖发育调控、材性改良等方面。但好像在品质改良培育能源树种方面的研究报道不多。佛罗里达大学的这项成果如若预期，将意义重大，理论上的突破有可能获诺贝尔奖，产生的经济效益巨大，将拯救能源危机。如今又让美国专家领先了！
资料来源：
UF researchers receive $643,000 federal grant to study wood-quality gene for fuel production. http://news.ufl.edu/2009/07/23/tree-grant/
UF researchers receive $643,000 federal grant to study wood-quality gene for fuel production
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A newly discovered gene may be the key to producing fuel ethanol more efficiently from trees, and the University of Florida researchers who identified it have received a prestigious federal grant to investigate further.
The gene, which helps regulate wood growth and the composition of wood fiber, could also lead to improved tree varieties for pulp and paper.
Matias Kirst and Gary Peter, plant geneticists with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, lead the team. They received one of seven 2009 Plant Feedstock Genomics for Bioenergy grants — a program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The grants, totaling $6.32 million, were announced this week. The UF team’s three-year, $643,000 grant will fund research on how the gene helps regulate cell wall chemistry and structure. The scientists will also investigate where and when its effects occur.
Eventually, they will create genetically engineered trees that overexpress or underexpress the gene, to study resulting changes in wood composition and biomass growth. “We focus on understanding very fundamental biological mechanisms that may be critical for the productivity of tree species and the quality of wood products,” said Kirst, with UF’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation. “The gene cpg13 appears to play a critical role in these traits.”
Cpg13, which stands for Carbon Partitioning and Growth on chromosome 13, was identified by one of Kirst’s graduate students, Evandro Novaes. The gene was isolated in poplar trees but may exist in other species.
It appears cpg13 controls how much of the carbon taken up by a poplar tree is used to make cellulose and lignin, two major building blocks of plant cell walls.
Cellulose is a complex carbohydrate, which can be broken down into glucose and fermented to produce biofuels. Wood with high cellulose and low lignin content is better suited for biofuels such as ethanol, because it should convert more efficiently and with greater yields.
High cellulose content is also a desirable trait for producing pulp and paper.
What’s more, there’s apparently a link between high cellulose content and fast tree growth, Kirst said. It may be possible to engineer trees that not only produce large amounts of wood quickly, but also have the ideal properties for biofuel, as well as pulp and paper production.
However, there is a potential benefit to trees with high lignin content. Plant materials rich in lignin degrade slower than those with more cellulose. It may be possible to engineer high-lignin trees that could be used to store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases that cause global climate change.
Another possibility, Kirst said, would be to develop trees with high cellulose content in stems and high lignin content in roots, offering the best solution for mitigating greenhouse gases.
The team also published a paper in the June issue of New Phytologist demonstrating that nitrogen fertilizer has a significant effect on genes that regulate growth and wood composition in poplar trees.
One expert likened the UF paper to studies showing that the interplay between nutrition and genetics has consequences for human health.
Malcolm Campbell, a professor with the University of Toronto’s department of cell and systems biology, said scientists have often viewed improvement of tree crops as a matter of genetic selection, but the UF team’s work demonstrates that much can be changed in the wood composition by silvicultural practices.
“The way this will shape forestry for the future is quite cutting-edge,” Campbell said.
Credits
Writer
Tom Nordlie, tnordlie@ufl.edu, 352-273-3567
Source
Matias Kirst, mkirst@ufl.edu , 352-846-0900
Source
Malcolm Campbell, malcolm.campbell@utoronto.ca, 416-946-0817
https://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-39523-250034.html
上一篇：美国访学见闻（11）：壮观的亚利桑纳大峡谷
下一篇：佛罗里达大学研究人员发现“短吻鄂”细菌可提升纤维素乙醇生产
