(227e) Enabling Technologies for Understanding Recalcitrance

Enabling Technologies for Understanding Recalcitrance

Erica Gjersing^1,3, Robert Sykes^1,3, Stephen Decker^2,3, Geoff Turner^2,3,  and Mark F. Davis^1,3

National Bioenergy Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA , Biosciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA,

BioEnergy Science Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA 

mark.davis@nrel.gov

Understanding the key features of the plant cell wall that impart resistance towards the deconstruction of biomass is essential for efficient use of this valuable resource.  The structure and chemical composition of the plant cell wall both play important roles in conveying recalcitrance during pretreatment and enzymatic conversion processes.  This presentation will review recent progress of the Bioenergy Science Center in applying spectroscopic, ‘omic and other analytical methods and how they are being used to expand our understanding of biomass recalcitrance.  These methods provide a means to begin unraveling the complex relationships between the cell wall constituents and their behavior during biomass conversion.  We will present examples from our laboratory and others showing how characterization of the plant cell wall throughout different conversion steps can lead to insights that can be used to improve both feedstocks and engineering processes.

We will also discuss a key strategy of the BESC to develop high throughput pipelines that can supply large populations of genetically diverse plant materials as well as measuring important phenotypes such as cell wall chemistry and biomass recalcitrance. These high throughput screens provide an effective means to identify interesting individual samples that can be subjected to more detailed analysis as well as measuring cell wall chemistry phenotypes that can be integrated with genetic information.  The integration of genetic and cell wall chemistry phenotypes will lead to a fundamental understanding of biomass recalcitrance and provide a path forward for the development of the next generation of biomass feedstocks.