Forest trees are increasingly bred, cultivated and harvested as wood fibre (biomass) crops
Trees as Biorefineries
Trees as Biorefineries
Genome Management Information System, Oak Ridge National Laboratory http://genomicsgtl.energy.gov/biofuels/.
Synthetic Biology Products
https://amyris.com/
Short-rotation woody biomass crops for the Bioeconomy ~20 MILLION TONS of RENEWABLE BIOMASS FEEDSTOCK > From 1.3 million ha of plantations (~1% of land) > R30 billion Forestry and Forest Products GDP (FSA Stats)
Eucalyptus grandis genome
Myburg et al. (2014, Nature)
http://xynteo.com/uploads/DNA%20strang%20blue.JPG
Carbon (Sugar)
From Genes to Pathways
Re-wiring genetic programs in trees (2017 – 2019) Challenges •
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Low cost, high-throughput transcriptional network reconstruction Predicting network behaviour and understanding information flow Re-engineering of transcriptional networks
tic he t n Sy
y log o i b
Transcriptional network underlying Arabidopsis secondary cell wall formation
g llin e od M
ing er e in ng e oBi
Adapted from Hussey et al. 2013
FMG, DST and Sappi’s investment in plant synthetic biology innovation
7 biologists 3 engineers 1 information & media student
Pretoria_UP 2016 Project
http://2016.igem.org/Team:Pretoria_UP
Synthetic DNA aptamers for thylakoid tethering in photobioelectrochemical cells
iGEM Giant Jamboree
iGEM 2015, Boston, USA 280 teams, > 2,700 participants