Biosciences Area

Metabolic Engineering of Lipids Improves the Respiratory Function of Biofuels and Bioproducts Hosts

While much is known about how enzymes and molecules are involved in cellular respiration, the understanding of the respiration system as a whole remains limited. Researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have gained insight into how cellular respiration is affected by the membrane environment in which it occurs. By engineering lipid synthesis to carefully control the membrane composition, researchers found that lipids, which consist of fatty acid molecules and determine membrane viscosity, also tightly control the rate of bacterial and yeast respiration. As lipid synthesis in these hosts is often engineered in order to produce molecules, these findings suggest new ways by which the pathways to produce biofuels and bioproducts could be optimized to maintain proper respiratory function, thereby increasing production. For more, read the JBEI news story.

JGI Builds Genetic Profile of Aspergillus section Nigri

Aspergillus section Nigri fungi sequenced and analyzed for this study. (All images by Ellen Kirstine Lyhne, DTU.) In Nature Genetics, a team led by scientists at the Technical University of Denmark, the JGI, and JBEI present the first large analysis of an Aspergillus fungal subgroup, section Nigri. The results are part of a long-term project to sequence, annotate and analyze the genomes of more than 300 Aspergillus fungi.

In choosing to focus on section Nigri, the researchers recognized the myriad of industrial applications for the fungi within this subgroup. They serve as production organisms for 49 of 260 industrial enzymes and are also very efficient producers of enzymes and secondary metabolites. JGI Fungal Program head Igor Grigoriev said that one of the aims in sequencing the genomes within the Aspergillus genus is to increase the catalog of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAzymes), which can degrade plant cell walls and thus have applications in the DOE mission to develop industrial processes for producing sustainable alternative fuels using candidate bioenergy feedstock crops. Click to read more on the JGI website.

JBEI Hosts Fossil-Based Resources, Refining, Fuels & Petrochemicals Technology Workshop

On September 20-21, JBEI hosted an internal workshop that covered the fundamentals of the production of petroleum and natural gas and their refining and conversion to chemicals. The workshop leader was Dr. Paul Bryan, former Director of DOE’s Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO), and the former VP of Biofuels Technology and Founding Manager of the Alliance for Advanced Energy Solutions for Chevron.

JGI Helps Develop Sugarcane Reference Sequence

Sugarcane produces 80 percent of the world’s sugar, which is of interest to bioenergy researchers who want to develop sustainable alternative fuels. Improving sugarcane breeding methods using molecular biology techniques has been hampered by the crop’s highly polyploid genome, which makes sequencing and assembly of the genome extremely challenging. As part of a proposal by JBEI, the JGI was part of an international team led by researchers from the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), who worked on sequencing and assembling fragments of sugarcane chromosomes into the first monoploid reference of the gene-rich part of the sugarcane genome. Reported in Nature Communications, their approach relied in part on having a sequence for sugarcane’s relative sorghum, a JGI Plant Flagship Genome sequence, and knowing that there was a high level of colinearity between the two crops, which meant most genes in sorghum occurred roughly in the same order in sugarcane. Learn more on the JGI website.

Was this page useful?

Send
like not like
Follow us: