United States Department of Energy Invests in Research on the Poplar Tree as a Model Biomass Crop for Future Bioenergy Applications

In its continuing effort to invest in genomics and biotechnology to develop a national “robust bioenergy future”, the United States Department of Energy has announced the awarding of a 1.2 million dollar grant to Virginia Tech, to study protein-protein interactions associated with biomass formation in the poplar tree.  According to the  Biopact website, poplar is the first tree to have its entire genome sequenced.  With this knowledge, it could be seen as a model biomass crop which can be tailored to produce “green chemicals” or “fuels with desired characteristics.  The poplar tree is also considered to be a  potential “third generation biofuel crop”, which means that certain properties of the crop can be manipulated to “allow a more efficient bioconversion” into the desired biofuel.

Among the Virginia Tech scientists involved in the research are Associate Professor Amy Brunner of the College of Natural Resources, as well as Assistant Professor Allan Dickerman.  Amy Brunner’s expertise in poplar genomics will be harnessed to “study a subset of protein interactions directly related in poplar trees”. The results will be incorporated  with the present knowledge of gene expression/function in polar.  Allan Dickerman will use the techniques of computational biology to map the protein interactions.