Biologists engineer is larger and difficult crops for fuel and biomedi

The cell walls not only provide support and protection for plants, but they are also packed with energy -rich vital materials that can open new paths for additional sources of fuel, chemical and material in the United States, which is why biologists in the US Department of Energy (DOE) in Brockhavin do not reach complex genetic mechanisms that regulate these useful beneficial materials.

In study It has just been published in Bottical Technology Magazine, The research team has identified a vegetable protein that plays a major role in three important biological processes in poplar plants-lights of light deficiency, biological creation of the cell wall, and synthesis of diseases anti-disease particles.

“Protein Ptrbhlh011 was called, and we caught our attention first several years when we were defining genes and proteins that affect how poplar plants respond to nutrition pressures,” said Meng Shih, the biologist in Brookhane and the lead author on the new paper. “We have found that the expression of the Ptrbhlh011 gene was largely reduced in the stressful plants that grow in an iron medium.”

During light representation, plants need iron to convert sunlight into chemical energy that occupies growth. With a deeper understanding of how plant genes and proteins such as Ptrbhlh011 work, biologists develop biological energy crops that can overlook this important mineral and prosperity even in the marginal land that suffers from iron deficiency.

Traditionally, the researchers worked to increase cell wall sugars that can be converted into vital. But in recent years, the strict cell wall component called Lignin has its attention because it can be used to produce valuable biological products with industrial applications, such as cement and adhesive materials.

“Various environmental factors cannot affect the biomedic creation of the cell wall, but also the percentage of cell wall components, such as sugars and ligans,” the clearest thing. “We have begun to study the molecular mechanism inherent in this so -called” environmental code. “

Jin “Roads” with a great return

Since some proteins have overlapping roles – or apparently unrelated roles – it may be difficult to decipher one function from the other. Therefore, biologists often “beats” or abolishing it, which is a gene to understand the protein function that it symbolizes better.

In this case, collaborators at the University of Maryland developed Poplar factories that lack Ptrbhlh011.

The knockout factories produced twice the number of laine and exposed a strengthening growth for the first time. This was particularly surprising because previous studies have shown that the increase in the content of the lin – and therefore, the stiffness of the cell walls – the energy dramatically turns from growth and limits the total biomass crop.

The modified plants also accumulated three times in their leaves and increase the production of flavonoids, which are compounds that can help plants to fight the disease.

In line with these notes, the plants designed by biologists in Brockhavin showed excessive expression of the PTRBHLHLHLH011 inverse features: dwarf growth, weaker cell walls, an increase in the disease, and the distinctive yellow leaves of nutrient pressure.

“PTRBHLHLH011 is a special type of protein called the copy factor, which means that it is associated with specific serials of vegetable DNA and regulates the expression of many targeted genes,” Yuqu Dai, post -PhD fellow at the Brookhane Laboratory and the first author on the new paper. “Therefore, we expected the disruption of the PTRBHLH011 gene to affect many biological processes associated with the targeted genes.”

However, the researchers were surprised when it was found that hitting the PTRBHLHLH011 protein increased many processes that require large amounts of energy, which would usually impose a large metabolic burden of plants.

Xi said: “We doubt that the three -fold increase in the paper iron content has strengthened optical representation in the plants, which eventually generates more energy to support plant growth and the synthesis of lignin and flavonoids.”

The increase in the synthesis of flavonoids is especially convincing as biologists from Brookhane and beyond the vital readiness efforts to protect vital energy plants from the disease. Through future studies that teach how plants respond to infection and disease, researchers aim to detect basic mechanisms that can be used to enhance crop resistance to pathogens that reduce biomass yield.

With a regulatory mechanism for genes that are modified by PTRBHLHLH011, Brookhane researchers are also working on setting the expression of its specified targeted genes.

“If we are able to adjust the targeted genes” the “estuary” individual, instead of the copy factor that organizes it all, we will be able to control one biological process more accurately at one time.

XIE added, “The founding understanding that we created during this study will enable our efforts in the field of biotechnology to progress in the production of biological energy and biological diseases.

XIE said: “These results were the result of the successful integration of the Multiple Office and Office of Science in the Ministry of Energy,” XIE said. For example, collaborators at the Joint Genome Institute measured the levels of genetic expression in engineering plants, and one of the collaborators in the molecular museum established an insight into how the newly discovered organizational mechanism developed with the development of wild plants, such as the mushroom.

Brookhane microscopic researchers used the focal microscope at the CFN to visualize the PTRBHLHLHLH011 in vegetable cells. They measured the content of the lignin in the biomass in the Biology Department in Brockhavin. With the collaborators from the national source of SYNCHRORONON II (NSSLS-II), the researchers conducted X-ray X-ray experiments in the submbryicron Specialscopy (SRX) accuracy and X-ray of X-ray (Lix) to study iron accumulation and cell wall structure.