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Transgenic plants for enhanced biofuel production

Biotechnology for Biofuels is pleased to present a special thematic series focusing on the development of crops for enhanced fuel production. The series covers genetic improvement of plant biomass traits for downstream processing and bio-production. We will continue to add new publications to this Special Issue as they become ready to publish.

This collection of articles has not been sponsored and articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer-review process.

Submissions to this series are now closed.

  1. Lignocellulosic biomass is one of the most promising renewable and clean energy resources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. However, the resistance to accessibility of sugars e...

    Authors: Hui Shen, Charleson R Poovaiah, Angela Ziebell, Timothy J Tschaplinski, Sivakumar Pattathil, Erica Gjersing, Nancy L Engle, Rui Katahira, Yunqiao Pu, Robert Sykes, Fang Chen, Arthur J Ragauskas, Jonathan R Mielenz, Michael G Hahn, Mark Davis, C Neal Stewart Jr…
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2013 6:71
  2. Chloroplast transformation in tobacco has been used extensively to produce recombinant proteins and enzymes. Chloroplast expression cassettes can be designed with different configurations of the cis-acting ele...

    Authors: Igor Kolotilin, Angelo Kaldis, Eridan Orlando Pereira, Serge Laberge and Rima Menassa
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2013 6:65
  3. Second-generation biofuels are generally produced from the polysaccharides in the lignocellulosic plant biomass, mainly cellulose. However, because cellulose is embedded in a matrix of other polysaccharides an...

    Authors: Rebecca Van Acker, Ruben Vanholme, Véronique Storme, Jennifer C Mortimer, Paul Dupree and Wout Boerjan
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2013 6:46
  4. Interest in the detailed lignin and polysaccharide composition of plant cell walls has surged within the past decade partly as a result of biotechnology research aimed at converting biomass to biofuels. High-r...

    Authors: Roger A Chylla, Rebecca Van Acker, Hoon Kim, Ali Azapira, Purba Mukerjee, John L Markley, Véronique Storme, Wout Boerjan and John Ralph
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2013 6:45
  5. Plant-produced biomass-degrading enzymes are promising tools for the processing of lignocellulose to fermentable sugars. A major limitation of in planta production is that high-level expression of such enzymes co...

    Authors: Holger Klose, Markus Günl, Björn Usadel, Rainer Fischer and Ulrich Commandeur
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2013 6:53
  6. Cost-efficient generation of second-generation biofuels requires plant biomass that can easily be degraded into sugars and further fermented into fuels. However, lignocellulosic biomass is inherently recalcitr...

    Authors: Pia Damm Petersen, Jane Lau, Berit Ebert, Fan Yang, Yves Verhertbruggen, Jin Sun Kim, Patanjali Varanasi, Anongpat Suttangkakul, Manfred Auer, Dominique Loqué and Henrik Vibe Scheller
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2012 5:84
  7. The recalcitrance of lignocellulosic cell wall biomass to deconstruction varies greatly in angiosperms, yet the source of this variation remains unclear. Here, in eight genotypes of short rotation coppice will...

    Authors: Nicholas JB Brereton, Michael J Ray, Ian Shield, Peter Martin, Angela Karp and Richard J Murphy
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2012 5:83
  8. The inherent recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass is one of the major economic hurdles for the production of fuels and chemicals from biomass. Additionally, lignin is recognized as having a negative impact...

    Authors: Kelsey L Yee, Miguel Rodriguez Jr, Timothy J Tschaplinski, Nancy L Engle, Madhavi Z Martin, Chunxiang Fu, Zeng-Yu Wang, Scott D Hamilton-Brehm and Jonathan R Mielenz
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2012 5:81
  9. For lignocellulosic bioenergy to become a viable alternative to traditional energy production methods, rapid increases in conversion efficiency and biomass yield must be achieved. Increased productivity in bio...

    Authors: Frank Alex Feltus and Joshua P Vandenbrink
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2012 5:80
  10. Down-regulation of the caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase EC 2.1.1.68 (COMT) gene in the lignin biosynthetic pathway of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) resulted in cell walls of transgenic plants releasing more co...

    Authors: Timothy J Tschaplinski, Robert F Standaert, Nancy L Engle, Madhavi Z Martin, Amandeep K Sangha, Jerry M Parks, Jeremy C Smith, Reichel Samuel, Nan Jiang, Yunqiao Pu, Arthur J Ragauskas, Choo Y Hamilton, Chunxiang Fu, Zeng-Yu Wang, Brian H Davison, Richard A Dixon…
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2012 5:71
  11. Lignocellulose is the most abundant biomass on earth. However, biomass recalcitrance has become a major factor affecting biofuel production. Although cellulose crystallinity significantly influences biomass sa...

    Authors: Ning Xu, Wei Zhang, Shuangfeng Ren, Fei Liu, Chunqiao Zhao, Haofeng Liao, Zhengdan Xu, Jiangfeng Huang, Qing Li, Yuanyuan Tu, Bin Yu, Yanting Wang, Jianxiong Jiang, Jingping Qin and Liangcai Peng
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2012 5:58
  12. Because many Miscanthus genotypes can be cultivated with relatively high productivity and carbohydrate content, Miscanthus has great potential as an energy crop that can support large scale biological production ...

    Authors: Taiying Zhang, Charles E Wyman, Katrin Jakob and Bin Yang
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2012 5:56
  13. Temporal and spatial expression of fatty acid and lipid biosynthetic genes are associated with the accumulation of storage lipids in the seeds of oil plants. In jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.), a potential biofuel ...

    Authors: Keyu Gu, Chengxin Yi, Dongsheng Tian, Jatinder Singh Sangha, Yan Hong and Zhongchao Yin
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2012 5:47
  14. Higher seed yield is one of the objectives of jatropha breeding. However, genetic analysis of the yield traits has not been done in jatropha. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping was conducted to identify gen...

    Authors: Fei Sun, Peng Liu, Jian Ye, Loong Chuan Lo, Suying Cao, Lei Li, Gen Hua Yue and Chun Ming Wang
    Citation: Biotechnology for Biofuels 2012 5:42