Heavy reliance on the uses of nonrenewable fossil resources for the production of energy and chemical commodities has resulted in pollutions, global warming and threatening the lives of different organisms in the humanosphere. To solve these problems and develop a more sustainable society, it is essential to switch to the uses of alterative renewable resources, such as plant biomass, for the generations of energy and materials.
Among the currently available biomass resources, grasses have drawn a lot of attention due to their high growth rate and high biomass productivity. On the other hand, lignins in plant cell walls have been viewed as a major obstacle for polysaccharide-oriented utilizations. Therefore, in this study, new strategies are proposed to bioengineer cell wall lignins of rice, a model grass species, to optimize the biomass utilization properties for biorefining applications.
In addition to serve as a renewable biomass resource for the production of energy and materials, plants are also a rich source of various phytochemicals, including flavonoids and stilbenoids. These phytochemicals are important for plant physiology and harbor health promoting properties when consumed by humans. However, some phytochemicals are only produced in specific species and their scarce occurrence might limit their accessibility. To improve plant performance towards stresses as well as provide a sustainable source for obtaining beneficial chemicals, transgenic plants which heterologously produce those phytochemicals will be generated and assessed in this study.
Overall, this study aims to contribute to achieve the core missions of RISH; establishment of a sustainable society with reduced dependence on fossil resources through improving the production of bioenergy and biomaterials from plant biomass (Missions 5-2, 2 and 1).
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2020年4月24日作成
