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Poplar for Bioenergy:
The ENERGYPOPLAR
PROJECT
Gail Taylor, 24 March, 2009
Madrid
FP7
9 Partners, 3M (EU) Total 4.1M
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Policy Drivers for increased
bioenergy
• 10% Renewable energy by 2010 and 20% by
2020. UK, European SET plan.
• 60% reduction in CO2 emissions and first
nation to have a climate change bill
• RTFO – 5% by volume liquid fuels from
renewable source by 2010 and 10% by 2020
• Bioenergy currently contributes
4.1 % to heat and electricity
2.5 % to liquid transportation (April 2008, from
0.5%) Taylor (2008), Energy Policy In Press
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Bioenergy -concerns• Greenhouse gas balance?
• Biodiversity? Loss of species?
• Other impacts?
• Food crop displacement and prices?
• Other indirect effects… tropical rain forests?
• Societal concerns? GM?
• Landscape-scale changes?
• Water use and management?
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Bioenergy Research – what are the
show stoppers?
Sustainability
Technology
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Feedstocks for bioenergy?
First generation crops
– Maize
– OSR
– Wheat grain
– Sugar beet
– Other oil crops from tropics -import
– Sugar cane (Brazil) - import
Second generation dedicated lignocellulose
– Trees – willow and poplar
– Grasses- miscanthus, switchgrass ,
– Others
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Estimated total amounts of C in soil & vegetation in different terrestrial
systems (Royal Society 2001). Pg C or Gt C
croplands 131 boreal forests 559
wetlands 240 temperate forests 159
tundra 127 tropical forests 428
deserts & semides. 199
temperate grasslands 304
tropical savannas 330
Total non forest 1,331 Total forests 1,146
Forest ecosystems – 50% global vegetation C
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Feedstock: Woody lignocellulosic biomass (2GC)
• Heat, power and liquid fuels (biological and thermochemical)
•Vast UK, EU and global resource
•Good GHG balance?
•Grown on marginal and abandoned land….. No food v fuel
•Biodiversity? Water use?
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Biomass Quantity-More biomass per
hectare
-Limited N and water
inputs
Biomass QualityImproved quality
-lignin
--cellulose
-- hemicellulose
-saccharification
-calorific value
Sustainable – GHG balance, biodiversity, water use,
What feedstock traits need improving?
Ideotype breeding?
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Addressing the yield gap in energy poplar – more biomass on
less land40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
YIELD – ODT ha-1 y-1
Potential Yield
Actual commercial UK Yield
40 ODT ha-1 y-1 [Nonhebel, 2002 ]35 ODT ha-1 y-1 [Scarascia-Mugnozza et al., 1997]
18 ODT ha-1 y-1 [Labreque et al., 2005]
20 ODT ha-1 y-1 [Corria et al., 1995]
18 ODT ha-1 y-1 [Rae et al., 2007]
2-3 ODT ha-1 y-1 [Bungart et al., 1995]
The yield
gap – high
throughput
biology can make
step-change
advances
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Short rotation
energy trees
Systems Biology for optimised yield and
lignocellulosic quality in energy trees
Phenotyping
The ideotype for
quality and yield:
Leaf area
development,
carbon metabolism
branching, phenology,
wood quality, root
growth, mycorrhiza
transcriptomics
proteomics
metabolomics
QTL discovery
candidate
genes identified
Genetical -
omics
Proof of concept in models
G x E testing – drought,
ozone, eCO2, temp,
salinity
GM approaches
RNAi , over expression
Genotyping
SNP discovery
Association
mapping in wide
populations
Non-GM but
biotechnologically
improved trees
GM trees released into
the environment
Biotechnology for
improved trees
Modified from Karnosky, and Taylor, submitted
PHENOTYPE
THE LINK BETWEEN GENOTYPE AND PHENOTYPE
GENES FOR TREE
IMPROVEMENT
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Poplar for bioenergy – globally
significant
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Full genome sequence (15 Sept 2006)
Small genome (similar to rice)
Diversity of species
Fast growing and perennial
Clonal
Transformation system
Genetic collections and molecular maps
Activation tagged populations
EST and BAC libraries
Genomic and post-genomic tools
Why is poplar the ideal bioenergy model?
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Aims of ENERGYPOPLAR
• The aim of the project is to improve
feedstock characteristics of poplar for
bioethanol production
• Improved yield
• Improved saccharification
• Improved sustainability and water
use efficiency
• Optimized LCA
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• INRA, France- (F Martin) -mapping pop, association, mycorrhizal
associations, genomics, ESTs, EVOLTREE, GM low lignin trees
• UPSC, Sweden (R Bhalerao) - GM lines, HT phenotyping cell walls,
transcriptomics, metabolomics, gene discovery platform
• Southampton, UK (G Taylor)- mapping pop, association, Carbon
isotopes, QTL elucidation, saccharification
• Udine, Italy (M Morgante) – Genotyping, HT SNPs discovery,
• Ghent, Belgium (W Boerjan) – GM low lignin trees, mapping pop
• Gottingen, Germany (A Polle) – GM trial, carbon isotopes, HT
• Imperial College, UK (R Murphy)- LCA , HT saccharification
assay
• ALU, Germany (K Palme) - Gene discovery, Systems Biology
• SweeTreeTechnologies (M Hertzberg)- commercialisation
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Workpackage 1
• Improve yield through genomics and
genetical genomics
• Optimise shoot function using GM
technologies
• Optimise root function using GM
technologies
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p_257111368828.0
p_288713814117.0
o_14915959360.0116202163.0
217473188.0
318110088.0
418525884.0
p_2786b19543372.0
Finish21101488.0
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CACTG-3818.1p_288719.7
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Example:
Poplar hot spot for biomass
traits
Core region
500 genes
Biomass
Locus
3
Rae et al. BMC Plant Biology In Press
Five ‘Poplar BIOMASS LOCI’ identified in Populus following
10 years of research
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Genetical genomics approach
• Improve density of markers on the key
biomass LG and in PBL3 using SNPs.
• Conduct microarray experiment using
‘biomass extremes’.
• Aim to identify key genes in the core
regions of the QTLs:
– Transcription factors potentially
controlling biomass
– Biomass related genes e.g. cell wall
synthesis, sugar synthesis, cell cycle
etc
TT
T/C
CC
Fre
qu
en
cy
Biomass
18
Marker 1
Marker 2
Marker 3
Marker 4
Marker 1
Marker 2
Marker 3
Marker 4Bio
mass
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<250
genes
19
PB
L3
Bio
mass
Genetic
PB
L3
Bio
mass
Physical
LGX
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Workpackage 2
• Establish GM field trials of current
and new material e.g. low lignin trees
• Establish high throughput
phenotyping for lignin and cellulose
traits
• Establish association genetics
populations
• Undertake saccharification assay on
500 plus genotypes of Populus – SRC,
GM, others
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What is Saccharification?
• “The process of breaking down a complex
carbohydrate into monosaccharide components”
• Breaking down ligno-cellulosic mass into glucose.
• This glucose can then be fermented to produce
ethanol.
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Saccharification potential of Populus?
• Identify natural genetic variation in glucose release across
Family 331 genotypes (F2 mapping population) using a high
throughput assay.
• Combine data with existing F331 markers to produce QTL and
identify genes of interest.
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Overview of Process
1.Pre-treatment of
dried wood
2.Hydrolysis of wood
to glucose
3.Fermentation of
glucose
Ethanol
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Wood Pre-treatment
• Wood ground to fine powder using ‘Retsch
300MM Mixer miller’.
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Glucose Release (mg/ml)
0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4
Fre
qu
en
cy
0
5
10
15
20
25
Results
Parent 1
Parent 2
Glucose release across F331 genotypes after 48 hours
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• In Total
account for
35% of
Variation
• Densely mapped
• Comparatively small - consists
of 75 genes
•Accounts for 9.5% of total
variation
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Workpackage 3
• Genomics and breeding
• SNPs discovery and HT genotyping
based on SNPs – areas of the
genome and candidate genes of
interest
• Select new trees for crossing with
superior alleles
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Workpackage 4
• Life Cycle Analysis
• Sustainability and ecosystem services
• Water use efficiency
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Summary
• Poplar has potential, globally as a bioenergy
feedstock crop
• Genomic approaches are beginning to unravel
complex traits such as biomass, response to drought
• New Bioenergy Centres in the USA will invest
massively in Populus. Europe should aim to remain
competitive