"Switchgrass has enormous potential as an energy crop and environmental benefits that are associated with its cultivation," said Chris Somerville, professor of biological sciences at Stanford University and director of the Carnegie Institution's department of plant biology. "I envision that switchgrass will be an important feedstock for the emerging lignocellulose to ethanol industry. An enhanced understanding of gene structure and diversity at the molecular level may lead to new approaches to enhance both biomass productivity and feedstock quality for bioenergy production."
In complement to switchgrass, DOE JGI will be sequencing Brachypodium distachyon, a temperate grass model system with a simple genome more amenable to sequencing. This choice responds to the urgent need for developing grasses into superior energy crops and improving grain crops and forage grasses for food production. Brachypodium will be undertaken via a two-pronged strategy: the first, a whole-genome shotgun sequencing approach, a collaboration between John Vogel also at the USDA laboratory, colleagues at the John Innes Centre in England, and the University of Minnesota; and the second, an expressed gene sequencing effort, led by Todd Mockler and Jeff Chang at Oregon State University, with Todd Michael of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Samuel Hazen from The Scri
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Contact: David Gilbert
gilbert21@llnl.gov
925-296-5643
DOE/Joint Genome Institute
11-Jul-2006