Among the major bottlenecks in using biomass for energy production are the difficulty of degrading the major constituents of plant cell walls (cellulose. hemicellulose, and lignin) and the inability of many plants to store carbon in energy-rich compounds. The GLBRC will strive to develop plants with increased yields of easily degraded polysaccharides and of oils that can be used as fuels.

The GLBRC leader of Thrust One is John Ralph (UW). 

MSU participants in Thrust One are:

Ken Keegstra (GLBRC Scientific Director and Department of Plant Biology), Curt Wilkerson (Plant Biology), and Markus Pauly: Identification of enzymes and genes for hemicellulose biosynthesis.

Curtis Wilkerson and Federica Brandizzi (Plant Biology): Genes and proteins involved in cell wall assembly, protein trafficking, and organelle dynamics in cotton.

Markus Pauly: Analytical platform for cell wall compositional analysis

Christoph Benning (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) and John Ohlrogge: Enhanced oil production in roots, tubers, leaves and stems.

Robin Buell (Plant Biology): Genomics of maize and switchgrass for biofuel feedstock improvement (with Shawn Kaeppler, Michael Casler, and Natalia de Leon, UW).

Tom Sharkey (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology): Enhanced starch production and metabolism

Kyung-Hwan Han (Department of Forestry): Generation and analysis of transgenic poplar trees with altered cell wall composition.

Yair Shachar-Hill (Department of Plant Biology): Metabolic flux analysis of plant oil synthesis (with Christoph Benning and John Ohlrogge) and of plant cell wall biosynthesis (with Ken Keegstra, Markus Pauly, and Curt Wilkerson).

Converting plant biomass to its component sugars is a major bottleneck in bioenergy production. The long-term goal of the GLBRC will be to develop new physical and biological strategies for processing plant feedstocks (such as corn stover, switchgrass, and poplar) into fermentable sugars and other useful chemicals.

The GLBRC leader of Thrust Two is Bruce Dale (MSU Department of Chemical Engineering).

MSU participants in Thrust Two are:

Bruce Dale: Optimization of pretreatment strategies, particularly ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX); development of optimized enzyme mixtures for biomass degradation; optimizing ethanol fermentation of sugar mixtures arising from
pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass; identification of enzyme and microbial inhibitors from pretreated biomass (with Daniel Jones, MSU Department of Chemistry).

Jonathan Walton (Department of Plant Biology): Development of novel enzymes and enzyme mixtures for enhanced biomass degradation; bioprospecting for novel fungal enzymes (with Phil Brumm and David Mead, Lucigen, Inc. , and Cameron Currie (UW).

Nick Santoro (Senior Research Assistant III): High throughput screening of plant biomass for enhanced enzymatic digestibility (with Markus Pauly and Jonathan Walton).

To increase the contribution of biofuels to the U.S. energy portfolio, plant-derived chemicals must be efficiently converted to compounds that can be used as fuels. The long-term goals of the GLBRC are to improve methods for conversion of cellulosic biomass into ethanol and to develop novel ways to convert plant material into hydrogen, electricitiy, or other chemical feedstocks that can replace fossil fuels.

The GLBRC leader of Thrust Three is Robert Landick (UW). The MSU liaison is Eric Hegg (Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Molecular Biology).

MSU participants in Thrust Three are:

Richard Lenski (Department of Crop and Soil Sciences): Directed evolution of E. coli for improved ethanologenesis (with T. Kiley, R. Landick, UW).

Yair Shachar-Hill: Metabolic flux analysis of microbial fermentation (with Richard Lenski, Robert Landick, and Jennifer Reed [UW]).

Eric Hegg, Robert Hausinger (Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics), Kazem Kashefi (Microbiology and Molecular Genetics), Gemma Reguera (Microbiology and Molecular Genetics), Claire Vieille (Biochemistry), and C. Peter Wolk (Plant Biology): Improving biological production of H₂ from filamentous cyanobacteria.

For a bioenergy economy to positively impact the U.S. energy sector, it must be integrated into agricultural, industrial, and social systems. The GLBRC will develop economically and environmentally sustainable best practices for the entire biofuel production cycle.

The GLBRC leader of Thrust Four is Philip Robertson, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Kellogg Biological Station.

MSU participants in Thrust Four are:

Kurt Thelen (Crop and Soil Sciences), Stephen Hamilton, (Zoology), Alexandra Kravchenko (Crop and Soil Sciences), Douglas Landis (Entomology), Carolyn Malmstrom (Plant Biology), Philip Robertson, and Douglas Schemske (Plant Biology): Comparisons of novel production systems (grain-based, perennial, woody, native grassland, and integrated perennial/annual crop).

James Tiedje (Crop and Soil Sciences) and Carolyn Malmstrom: Management of microbial-plant interactions in biofuel crops for sustainability (with J-M. Ane, UW).

Stephen Hamilton and Phil Robertson: Analysis of water use efficiency, nutrient conservation, and global warming potential of different crops and cropping systems related to bioenergy

Douglas Landis, Douglas Schemske, and Thomas Schmidt (Microbiology and Molecular Genetics): Biodiversity responses of specific biofuels production systems for maximizing ecosystem services.

Scott Swinton (Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics): Economic impacts of cellulosic ethanol production on the development of a sustainable bioeconomy (with Bruce Babcock, Iowa State University).

To realize its goals, the GLBRC will deploy high-throughput technologies, integrate information from computation, physical, and biological approaches, and develop predictive models for relevant enzymes, pathways, and metabolic networks.

The GLBRC Director of Enabling Technologies is Kathryn Richmond (UW).