Biotech Updates

Brachypodium Research a Big Help in Biofuels Research

September 19, 2008

Genomic studies of Brachypodium distachyon, a distant cousin of the switch grass (a biofuel feedstock), is being conducted in order to understand the later’s genetic make-up by  Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists John Vogel,  Yong Gu, David Garvin and Olin Anderson at the agency’s Western Regional Research Center in Albany, CA. They had successfully shuttled new genes into Brachypodium through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation to uncover functions of some plant genes. In addition, Gu and colleagues have developed a “physical map” to depict the location of neighboring stretches of Brachypodium genes.

Details of the press release can be viewed at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2008/080915.htm  and at the September 2008 issue of Agricultural Research magazine at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep08/grass0908.htm