1366I.1366II.1367III.1368IV.1368V.1369VI.1370VII.1372VIII.1372IX.1376X.13771377References1377 Summary The aim of producing sustainable liquid biofuels and chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass remains high on the sustainability agenda, but is challenged by the costs of producing fermentable sugars from these materials. Sugars from plant biomass can be fermented to alcohols or even alkanes, creating a liquid fuel in which carbon released on combustion is balanced by its photosynthetic capture. Large amounts of sugar are present in the woody, nonfood parts of crops and could be used for fuel production without compromising global food security. However, the sugar in woody biomass is locked up in the complex and recalcitrant lignocellulosic plant cell wall, making it difficult and expensive to extract. In this paper, we review what is known about the major polymeric components of woody plant biomass, with an emphasis on the molecular interactions that contribute to its recalcitrance to enzymatic digestion. In addition, we review the extensive research that has been carried out in order to understand and reduce lignocellulose recalcitrance and enable more cost‐effective production of fuel from woody plant biomass.
Cell imaging often relies on synthetic or genetic fluorescent labels, to provide contrast which can be far from ideal for imaging cells in their in vivo state. We report on the biological application of a, label-free, high contrast microscopy technique known as ptychography, in which the image producing step is transferred from the microscope lens to a high-speed phase retrieval algorithm. We demonstrate that this technology is appropriate for label-free imaging of adherent cells and is particularly suitable for reporting cellular changes such as mitosis, apoptosis and cell differentiation. The high contrast, artefact-free, focus-free information rich images allow dividing cells to be distinguished from non-dividing cells by a greater than two-fold increase in cell contrast, and we demonstrate this technique is suitable for downstream automated cell segmentation and analysis.
Lignocellulosic plant biomass is an attractive feedstock for the production of sustainable biofuels, but the commercialization of such products is hampered by the high costs of processing this material into fermentable sugars (saccharification). One approach to lowering these costs is to produce crops with cell walls that are more susceptible to hydrolysis to reduce preprocessing and enzyme inputs. To deepen our understanding of the molecular genetic basis of lignocellulose recalcitrance, we have screened a mutagenized population of the model grass Brachypodium distachyon for improved saccharification with an industrial polysaccharide-degrading enzyme mixture. From an initial screen of 2,400 M 2 plants, we selected 12 lines that showed heritable improvements in saccharification, mostly with no significant reduction in plant size or stem strength. Characterization of these putative mutants revealed a variety of alterations in cell-wall components. We have mapped the underlying genetic lesions responsible for increased saccharification using a deep sequencing approach, and here we report the mapping of one of the causal mutations to a narrow region in chromosome 2. The most likely candidate gene in this region encodes a GT61 glycosyltransferase, which has been implicated in arabinoxylan substitution. Our work shows that forward genetic screening provides a powerful route to identify factors that impact on lignocellulose digestibility, with implications for improving feedstock for cellulosic biofuel production.lignocellulosic biofuel | matrix polysaccharides | lignin | feruloylation C oncerns over greenhouse-gas emissions and the sustainability of liquid transportation fuel supplies have led to a rapid expansion of global biofuel production in recent years. Current biofuel production is dominated by bioethanol produced by fermentation of starch or sucrose from food crops and by biodiesel produced by transesterification of plant or animal oils. Although the production of such "first-generation" biofuels can be efficient, there is widespread concern that further expansion will exacerbate anticipated problems with global food security through direct competition for resources. In addition, these crops often require high inputs and consequently have a relatively high carbon footprint (1). A promising alternative to first-generation biofuel is the use of nonfood lignocellulosic plant biomass, available as agricultural waste from food crops or produced from low input, nonfood plants such as perennial grasses (2).Lignocellulosic biomass is principally composed of plant secondary cell walls and comprises ∼70% polysaccharides, which can be converted into simple sugars for fermentation (3). The main challenge in producing bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass is that these polysaccharides occur as part of a complex and indigestible macromolecular material that contains high amounts of lignin. The saccharification (conversion into simple sugars) of lignocellulose therefore requires energy demanding pretreatments and high enz...
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