USDA, DOE award $11 million for 10 advanced biofuels genetic projects: switchgrass, miscanthus, sunflower, poplar in focus

The Department of Energy and the USDA jointly announced $11 million in funding for 10 genetic research projects aimed at accelerating cellulosic feedstock development. The DOE will provide $8.8 million and the USDA $2 million towards the grants.

Projects will focus on the development of a functional genomic model for second generation bioenergy crops such as switchgrass; development of computational tools and resources for data-mining of genome sequence, genome annotation, and large-scale functional genomic datasets available for biofuel feedstock species; integrated breeding and genomics platform to identify biomass traits in rice, for translation to second generation bioenergy grasses such as switchgrass and Miscanthus; genomic resources for woody biomass trait identification in hybrid sunflower; and a genetic modification project for poplar.

The University of Georgia, Penn State, Michigan State, Purdue University, UMass, Colorado State, and Oregon State are among the award recipients.

The full list of awards and abstracts, with links to detailed project descriptions, is here at biofuelsdigest.com

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