Improving stress tolerance in the bioenergy crop switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) by investigating and engineering terpene metabolic networks
Plant Biochemistry and Biophysics
Final Report Abstract
This large, collaborative research project integrates functional genomics, metabolomics, protein biochemical, and genetic approaches to investigate the mechanisms that govern environmental stress tolerance in the bioenergy crop switchgrass. Specifically, this work aims to understand the biosynthesis, evolution and physiological function of specialized metabolites in switchgrass that have probable functions in drought adaptation. This project has not only generated detailed insights into switchgrass specialized metabolites and their corresponding biosynthetic genes that contribute to plant-environment interactions, but also developed advanced pipelines for correlating genomic and metabolomic data for the analysis of plant stress responses, which are now applied to several follow-up projects.
Publications
- (2020). Genomics-enabled analysis of specialized metabolism in bioenergy crops: current progress and challenges. Synthetic Biology
Tiedge, K., Muchlinski, A., & Zerbe, P.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1093/synbio/ysaa005) - (2021). Cytochrome P450-catalyzed biosynthesis of furanoditerpenoids in the bioenergy crop switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.). Plant J.
Muchlinski, A., Jia, M., Tiedge, K., Fell, J.S., Pelot, K.A., Chew, L., Davisson, D., Chen, Y., Siegel, J., Lovell, J.T. and Zerbe, P.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.15492)
