Improving bioenergy yield under drought stress from field to lab

ABSTRACT: Part of the DOE’s strategy to ensure American energy independence is to produce biofuels from dedicated biomass crops. Achieving DOE’s ambitious goal of displacing 30 percent of 2004 gasoline demand with biofuels by 2030 will require major increases in plant productivity. Switchgrass has been championed as a promising bioenergy species, but few tools exist to facilitate its widespread commercial use. A major challenge has been its large, complex genome. As a close relative of agronomic switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) with a diploid genome and seed-to-seed time of 8 weeks, Panicum hallii offers researchers a model system for exploring Panicum genetics, genomics, and adaptation for agronomic improvement. Bacteria living in leaves and roots influence many aspects of plant health, especially rhizobacteria and mycorrhizae are known to impact plant aboveground phenotypes 1,2. To better understand P. halli-microbe ecosystems, we will conduct experiments at our Texas field site, in EcoCells at Desert Research Institute (DRI) and in growth chambers and the Ecopod at LBNL. Ecopods are enclosed environments that allow direct and intensive monitoring and manipulation of replicated plant-soil-microbe-atmosphere interactions over the complete plant life cycle. Specifically, we are interested in plant microbe ecosystem stress response with respect to soil drying. Despite its broad adaptation to marginal, droughty soils 3,4, a persistent issue in producing switchgrass has been the rapid and consistent establishment of strong stands, especially when drought occurs during implantation. The proposed study is aimed at disclosing biotic interactions modulating plant and microbial metabolism under globally relevant environmental conditions and provides an opportunity to benchmark the Ecopods at LBNL. The work (proposal:https://doi.org/10.46936/10.25585/60001211) conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (https://ror.org/04xm1d337), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

INSTRUMENT(S): Q Exactive

ORGANISM(S): Panicum Hallii Microbiome

SUBMITTER: Esther Singer  

PROVIDER: MSV000094782 | MassIVE | Thu May 16 18:22:00 BST 2024

REPOSITORIES: MassIVE