Another major CSP project is the selection of cassava (Manihot esculenta), an excellent energy source and food for approximately one billion people around the planet. Its roots contain 20 to 40 percent starch, from which ethanol can be derived, making it an attractive and strategic source of renewable energy. Cassava grows in diverse environments, from extremely dry to humid climates, acidic to alkaline soils, from sea level to high altitudes, and in nutrient-poor soil.
"Sequencing the cassava genome will help bring this important crop to the forefront of modern science and generate new possibilities for agronomic and nutritional improvement," said Norman Borlaug, Nobel laureate, father of the "Green Revolution," and Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture, Texas A&M University. "It is a most welcome development."
The cassava project will extend broad benefits to its vast research community, including a better understanding of starch and protein biosynthesis, root storage, and stress controls, and enable crop improvements, while shedding light on such mechanisms shared by other important related plants, including the rubber tree and castor bean.
The cassava project, led by Claude M. Fauquet, Director of the International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology and colleagues at the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, and includes contributions from the USDA laboratory in Fargo, ND; Washington University St Louis; University of Chicago; The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR); Missouri Botanical Garden; the Broad Institute; Ohio State University; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia; and the Smithsonian Institution.
Adding to the list of crops to be sequenced by DOE JGI is the oyster mushroom, Pleurotus ostreatus, for its prospective role in bioenergy and bioremediation. This white-rot fungus is an active lignin degrader
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Contact: David Gilbert
gilbert21@llnl.gov
925-296-5643
DOE/Joint Genome Institute
11-Jul-2006