Research Focus
Develop and apply methods for the physical characterization of plants and microbes at the nano- and meso-scale to better understand the effects of feedstock and microbial engineering. Develop and apply advanced imaging methods for the study of plant cell walls.
Projects
- SEM and TEM imaging of plants, pretreated biomass or natural and engineered microbes
- Monitor effects on feedstock biomass of cell wall re-engineering carried out with Feedstocks Division
- Develop capabilities to image/map lignin abundance and distribution in genetically modified feedstocks
- Develop capabilities for tag-based subcellular protein localization at optical microscopy and EM level (for plants and microbes)
Featured Media
JBEI Expert Manfred Auer on the role of electron microscopy in JBEI’s research
Making Do with More: Joint BioEnergy Institute Researchers Engineer Plant Cell Walls to Boost Sugar Yields for Biofuels
Swords to Plowshares: Engineering Plants for More Biofuel sugars
Microbes Produce Fuels Directly from Biomass
Featured Publications
- “Non-invasive imaging of cellulose microfibril orientation within plant cell walls by polarized Raman microspectroscopy”, Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2015)
- “Electron tomography of cryo-immobilized plant tissue: a novel approach to studying 3D macromolecular architecture of mature plant cell walls in situ”, PLoS One (2014)
- “Cellulosic biomass pretreatment and sugar yields as a function of biomass particle size”, PLoS One (2014)
- “Community dynamics of cellulose-adapted thermophilic bacterial consortia”, Environ Microbiol (2013)
- “Three Novel Genes Closely Related to the Arabidopsis IRX9, IRX9L and IRX14 Genes and their Roles in Xylan Biosynthesis”, Front Plant Sci (2013)
- “Survey of renewable chemicals produced from lignocellulosic biomass during ionic liquid pretreatment”, Biotechnol Biofuels (2013)
- “Engineering of plants with improved properties as biofuels feedstocks by vessel-specific complementation of xylan biosynthesis mutants”, Biotechnol Biofuels (2012)
- “Inactivation of OsIRX10 Leads to Decreased Xylan Content in Rice Culm Cell Walls and Improved Biomass Saccharification”, Mol Plant (2013)
- “Engineering secondary cell wall deposition in plants”, Plant Biotechnol J (2013)
- “Understanding changes in lignin of Panicum virgatum and Eucalyptus globulus as a function of ionic liquid pretreatment”, Bioresour Technol (2012)
- “Isolation and proteomic characterization of the Arabidopsis Golgi defines functional and novel components involved in plant cell wall biosynthesis”, Plant Physiol (2012)
- “The cooperative activities of CSLD2, CSLD3, and CSLD5 are required for normal Arabidopsis development”, Mol Plant (2011)
- “Loss of Cellulose synthase-like F6 function affects mixed-linkage glucan deposition, cell wall mechanical properties, and defense responses in vegetative tissues of rice”, Plant Physiol (2012)
- “High-throughput enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass via in-situ regeneration”, Bioresour Technol (2011)
- “Study of enzymatic digestion of cellulose by small angle neutron scattering”, Biomacromolecules (2010)
- “Comparison of dilute acid and ionic liquid pretreatment of switchgrass: Biomass recalcitrance, delignification and enzymatic saccharification”, Bioresour Technol (2010)