Source: NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to
OILS RESOURCES FROM DESERT PLANTS, NM
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
SPECIAL GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0219372
Grant No.
2009-34331-20004
Project No.
NM-HANSON09-G
Proposal No.
2009-03417
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
JP
Project Start Date
Aug 15, 2009
Project End Date
Aug 14, 2010
Grant Year
2009
Project Director
Hanson, S. F.
Recipient Organization
NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY
1620 STANDLEY DR ACADEMIC RESH A RM 110
LAS CRUCES,NM 88003-1239
Performing Department
Entomology, Plant Pathology & Weed Science
Non Technical Summary
Oilseed plants provide a natural, renewable resource for industrial -use oils. In spite of considerable efforts in the past decades to cultivate native oil- bearing plants for harvesting, difficulties result due to the genetic nature and physical characteristics of these natural shrubs. An alternative approach to the production of industrial oil products in plants takes advantage of genetic engineering and related technologies. A need exists for the development of clean and renewable resources of valuable industrial and commercial oil products. This project relies upon existing agricultural resources to produce alternative crops (non food crops) and the abundant natural resources which contain unique genetic information which can be engineered into crop plants for commercial oil production. This research project is ideally suited for the application of the rapidly advancing technologies of genomics, proteomics, and genetic engineering.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2061899113050%
2062499113050%
Knowledge Area
206 - Basic Plant Biology;

Subject Of Investigation
1899 - Oilseed and oil crops, general/other; 2499 - Plant research, general;

Field Of Science
1130 - Entomology and acarology;
Goals / Objectives
The objective of this research is to apply the techniques of genetic engineering and related developing sciences, such as genomics and proteomics, toward the production of valuable alternative products in established crop plants. Through the application of recent advances in genetic sciences, it is feasible to modify the genome of an established oilseed crop plant to result in the production of high value oils or other new products which have industrial, nutritional, and pharmaceutical applications.
Project Methods
The specific approaches of this project are to identify natural sources of industrial use oils, identify components of the metabolic pathways for these oils which can be transferred to agronomic crops, isolate genes from he natural sources which include the desired components, identify genes or products which enhance the production of the desired oil, design genetic constructs to facilitate the transfer of the desired genes to agronomic crops and to enhance the production of the desired oil in the crop, develop techniques for efficient and enhanced tissue culture for use in experimental learning in laboratory settings, and proceed with plant transformation and field tests to evaluate the success of this approach to devleoping alternative crops.

Progress 08/15/09 to 08/14/10

Outputs
OUTPUTS: Progress during the past year included cloning 12 putative A. thaliana wax synthase genes into plant transformation expression vectors. These vectors were used to transform A. thaliana which is nearly complete for all 12 genes. Once transformed lines are complete for all 12 genes we will analyze the wax content of each line to detect differences in wax (or other fatty acid metabolites) that change in plants due to the over expression of a particular wax synthase gene. This chemical analysis will be performed using a high resolution HPLC-MS platform that we have optimized for analysis of plant waxes. During the past year we used this system to analyze wax and fatty acid content of tobacco leaves infiltrated with individual the collection of cloned wax synthase genes. We have also initiated bioinformatic work to identify and characterize sequences involved in regulating the tissue specific expression of wax synthase genes. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
The primary impact of this research is the potential for development of alternative crops for U.S. agriculture for the production of valuable products, especially renewable "green" alternatives that can replace foreign petroleum derived products. The impacts of this work will be far reaching. Plants adapted to desert environments produce a variety of novel high value compounds not normally found in high levels in conventional crops. While efficient production of these desert plants is not practical it is likely that biotech approaches can be used to create conventional oilseed crops that express useful levels of these high value oils and waxes. Production of useful levels of these compounds in oilseed crops would provide a domestic renewable source of this high value compounds and negate the use of foreign petroleum based sources of these valuable chemicals.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period