Metabolomics of sugarcane and discovery of new hydrolytic enzymes for biofuel production

Abstract

Sugarcane bagasse and Eucalyptus are the main renewable feedstock available in Brazil for biofuel production. The project has two main lines of research: in the first part of we will characterize the metabolome of different tissues and organs of sugarcane varieties and, grown under different experimental conditions of biotic and abiotic stresses (drought, high and low temperature, pathogens, insects, high CO2, etc). The aim is to develop a data bank of metabolites and metabolic networks linking the transcriptomics information, already available, to identify new gene functions and phenotypes. All the information from sugarcane will be integrated into the bioinformatics server of SUCEST allowing the user to crosslink the data of experiments from transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics, molecular markers (such as QTLS and E-QTLS) or any other service available in the SUCEST server. The second part of the project will evaluate the potential to isolate new cellulases, hemicellulases and lignin degrading enzymes from microorganisms and insects occurring in areas of commercial plantations of eucalypts in Brazil, particularly in areas of reform. (AU)