Illinois Data Bank Dataset Search Results
Results
published:
2025-12-14
Fraterrigo, Jennifer; Chen, Weile
(2025)
This dataset contains information about absorptive roots from 170 plots along a latitudinal and temperature gradient in northern Alaska, including tussock sedges and deciduous alder, birch, and willow shrubs. This dataset accompanies the paper "Impacts of Arctic Shrubs on Root Traits and Belowground Nutrient Cycles Across a Northern Alaskan Climate Gradient," which was published in Frontiers in Plant Sciences.
<b>*Note:</b> in the "patch coordinates" tab, the same coordinates/elevation ("Long", "Lat", and "Elev (m)") apply to all patches that share a number. For ex: "Patch" W1, B1, and G1 share the same "Long", "Lat", and "Elev (m)" values as "Patch" A1.
keywords:
absorptive root traits; shrub expansion; Arctic; Alaskan tundra
published:
2025-12-15
Vector competence and survival data for Aedes albopictus mosquitoes exposed to Ross River virus
keywords:
Emerging viruses; vectorial capacity; vector competence; container-breeding mosquitoes; alphavirus; Culicidae
published:
2025-12-15
Xiao, Tianxia; Khan, Artem; Shen, Yihui; Chen, Li; Rabinowitz, Joshua
(2025)
Ethanol and lactate are typical waste products of glucose fermentation. In mammals, glucose is catabolized by glycolysis into circulating lactate, which is broadly used throughout the body as a carbohydrate fuel. Individual cells can both uptake and excrete lactate, uncoupling glycolysis from glucose oxidation. Here we show that similar uncoupling occurs in budding yeast batch cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Issatchenkia orientalis. Even in fermenting S. cerevisiae that is net releasing ethanol, media 13C-ethanol rapidly enters and is oxidized to acetaldehyde and acetyl-CoA. This is evident in exogenous ethanol being a major source of both cytosolic and mitochondrial acetyl units. 2H-tracing reveals that ethanol is also a major source of both NADH and NADPH high-energy electrons, and this role is augmented under oxidative stress conditions. Thus, uncoupling of glycolysis from the oxidation of glucose-derived carbon via rapidly reversible reactions is a conserved feature of eukaryotic metabolism.
keywords:
Conversion;Metabolomics
published:
2025-12-09
Hsu, Felicity Ting-Yu; Smith-Bolton, Rachel
(2025)
This page contains the data for the publication "Myc and Tor drive growth and cell competition in the regeneration blastema of Drosophila wing imaginal discs" published in Development, 2025.
keywords:
Drosophila; regeneration; Myc; Tor; blastema; translation; cell competition
published:
2025-12-09
Chase, Marissa H.; Fraterrigo, Jennifer M.; Charles, Brian; Harmon-Threatt, Alexandra
(2025)
The dataset includes bee community data from a study conducted down in southern Illinois across three forested public land sites. Bee diversity and abundance data, as well as environmental variables, are included for each plot. Each plot was visited a total of four times.
keywords:
wild bees; forest management; resource availability
published:
2023-09-20
Chase, Marissa H. ; Charles, Brian; Harmon-Threatt, Alexandra; Fraterrigo, Jennifer
(2023)
Dataset includes bee trait information and species abundance information for bees collected at 29 forests plots in southern Illinois, USA. Plots are located within three public land sites. Environmental data were also collected for each of the 29 plots.
keywords:
wild bees; forest management; functional traits
published:
2020-09-17
Refsland, Tyler; Knapp, Benjamin; Stephan, Kirsten; Fraterrigo, Jennifer
(2020)
Data are from a long-term fire manipulation experiment in the Missouri Ozarks, USA. Data include the raw, annual ring-width increment (rwl), basal area increment (BAI), population-level annual growth resistance (Drs) and resilience (Drl) to drought, intrinsic water use efficiency values (WUEi) and oxygen isotopic composition of individual radial growth rings (δ18O) from southern red oak (Quercus falcata) and post oak (Q. stellata) trees.
----------------------
TITLE:
Data for "Sixty-five years of fire manipulation reveals climate and fire interact to determine growth rates of Quercus spp."
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FILE OVERVIEW:
This dataset contains four (4) CSV files as described below:
Refsland_et_al_ECS20-0465_BAI.csv: annual basal area increment between 1948-2015 for trees across the fire manipulation experiment
Refsland_et_al_ECS20-0465_DroughtIndices.csv: population-level drought resistance and resilience of trees during each target drought period
Refsland_et_al_ECS20-0465_WUEi.csv: carbon isotope indicators of drought stress for trees across the fire manipulation experiment
Refsland_et_al_ECS20-0465_d18Or.csv: oxygen isotope indicators of drought stress for trees across the fire manipulation experiment
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VARIABLE EXPLANATION:
All the variables in those four files are explained as below:
treeID: unique character string that identifies subject tree
block: integer (1, 2) that identifies the study block
plot: integer (1-12) that identifies the plot nested within each study block
trt: character string (Annual, Control, Periodic) that identifies the fire treatment of a given plot
species: character string (Quercus falcata, Quercus stellata) that identifies species of subject tree
year: integer (1948-2015) that identifies the dated year of each tree ring
rwl_mm: numerical value representing the annual tree ring-width, in mm
bai_cm2: numerical value representing the annual basal area increment, in cm2
timeperiod: integer value (1953, 1964, 2007, 2012) representing the periods encompassing target dry and wet years
Drs_2yr: numerical value representing the drought resistance, defined as the population-level annual growth of trees during drought years relative to pre-drought years for a given time period
Drl_2yr: numerical value representing the drought resilience, defined as the population-level annual growth of trees following drought years relative to pre-drought years for a given time period
stand_ba_m2ha: numerical value representing the total basal area of a given plot, in m2 per ha
stand_density_stems_ha: numerical value representing the total stem density of a given plot, in stems per ha
pool: numerical value (1-40) identifying the set of tree ring samples pooled for analysis. Samples were pooled by block, plot, year and species
period: integer value (1953, 1964, 1980, 2007, 2012) representing the periods encompassing target dry and wet years
type: character string (Dry, Wet) indicating the water availability of a given year
d13C: numerical value representing the carbon isotopic composition of radial growth rings within a given sample pool, in per mil
WUEi: numerical value representing the annual intrinsic water use efficiency of radial growth rings within a given sample pool
d18O: numerical value representing the oxygen isotopic composition of radial growth rings within a given sample pool, in per mil
keywords:
climate change adaptation; drought; fire; nitrogen availability; oak-hickory; radial growth; resilience; resistance; stand density; temperate broadleaf forest; water stress
published:
2021-10-15
Perez, Sierra; Dalling, James; Fraterrigo, Jennifer
(2021)
Information on the location, dimensions, time of treefall or death, decay state, wood nutrient, wood pH and wood density data, and soil moisture, slope, distance from forest edge and soil nutrient data associated with the publication "Interspecific wood trait variation predicts decreased carbon residence time in changing forests" authored by Sierra Perez, Jennifer Fraterrigo, and James Dalling.
** <b>Note:</b> Blank cells indicate that no data were collected.
keywords:
wood decay; carbon residence time; coarse woody debris; decomposition, temperate forests
published:
2025-04-26
Alvarez, Jennifer; Fraterrigo, Jennifer; Dalling, James; Edgington, John
(2025)
Historical census data collected at Trelease Woods from 1986 to 2004 with information on tree species, diameter at breast height (DBH), and plot location.
keywords:
old-growth; temperate forest; species composition; forest dynamics; historical data
published:
2025-04-27
Alvarez, Jennifer; Fraterrigo, Jennifer; Dalling, James
(2025)
Soil data for ten soil cores collected at Trelease Woods in 2022. Soil samples were analyzed with an elemental analyzer via combustion to obtain total carbon (C) and nitrogen. A subset of these samples were analyzed using the Walkley-Black method to obtain organic C. A calibration curve relating organic C and total C was created using these data.
keywords:
old-growth; temperate forest; soil carbon; soil nitrogen; nutrient cycling
published:
2025-04-28
Alvarez, Jennifer; Fraterrigo, Jennifer; Dalling, James
(2025)
Dataset of the standing dead trees at Trelease Woods in 2022. Dataset contains volume, biomass, decay class, and GPS coordinates for each standing dead tree.
keywords:
old-growth; temperate forest; standing deadwood; census data
published:
2020-10-01
Fraterrigo, Jennifer; Rembelski, Mara
(2020)
We measured the effects of fire or drought treatment on plant, microbial and biogeochemical responses in temperate deciduous forests invaded by the annual grass Microstegium vimineum with a history of either frequent fire or fire exclusion.
Please note, on Documentation tab / Experimental or Sampling Design, “15 (XVI)” should be “16 (XVI)”.
keywords:
plant-soil interaction; grass-fire cycle; Microstegium; carbon and nitrogen cycling; microbial decomposers
published:
2025-12-08
Li, Shuai; Moller, Christopher; Mitchell, Noah G.; Martin, Duncan; Sacks, Erik; Saikia, Sampurna; Labonte, Nicholas R.; Baldwin, Brian S.; Morrison, Jesse; Ferguson, John; Leakey, Andrew; Ainsworth, Elizabeth
(2025)
The leaf economics spectrum (LES) describes multivariate correlations in leaf structural, physiological and chemical traits, originally based on diverse C3 species grown under natural ecosystems. However, the specific contribution of C4 species to the global LES is studied less widely. C4 species have a CO2 concentrating mechanism which drives high rates of photosynthesis and improves resource use efficiency, thus potentially pushing them towards the edge of the LES. Here, we measured foliage morphology, structure, photosynthesis, and nutrient content for hundreds of genotypes of the C4 grass Miscanthus × giganteus grown in two common gardens over two seasons. We show substantial trait variations across M. × giganteus genotypes and robust genotypic trait relationships. Compared to the global LES, M. × giganteus genotypes had higher photosynthetic rates, lower stomatal conductance, and less nitrogen content, indicating greater water and photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency in the C4 species. Additionally, tetraploid genotypes produced thicker leaves with greater leaf mass per area and lower leaf density than triploid genotypes. By expanding the LES relationships across C3 species to include C4 crops, these findings highlight that M. × giganteus occupies the boundary of the global LES and suggest the potential for ploidy to alter LES traits.
keywords:
Feedstock Production;Biomass Analytics;Field Data
published:
2025-12-08
Maitra, Shraddha; Viswanathan, Mothi Bharath; Park, Kiyoul; Kannan, Baskaran; Cano Alfanar, Sofia; McCoy, Scott M.; Cahoon, Edgar; Altpeter, Fredy; Leakey, Andrew; Singh, Vijay
(2025)
Plant oils are increasingly in demand as renewable feedstocks for biodiesel and biochemicals. Currently, oilseeds are the primary source of plant oils. Although the vegetative tissues of plants express lipid metabolism pathways, they do not hyper-accumulate lipids. Elevated synthesis, storage, and accumulation of lipids in vegetative tissues have been achieved by metabolic engineering of sugarcane to produce “oilcane.” This study evaluates the potential of oilcane as a renewable feedstock for the co-production of lipids and fermentable sugars. Oilcane was grown under favorable climatic and field conditions in Florida (FLOC) as well as during an abbreviated growing season, outside its typical growing region, in Illinois (ILOC). The potential lipid yield of 0.35 tons/ha was projected from the hyperaccumulation of fatty acids in the stored vegetative biomass of FLOC, which is approaching the lipid yield of soybean (0.44 tons/ha). Processing of the vegetative tissues of oilcane recovered 0.20 tons/ha, which represents the recovery of 55% of the total lipids from FLOC. Chemical-free hydrothermal bioprocessing of ILOC and FLOC bagasse and leaves at 180 °C for 10 min prevented the degeneration of in situ plant lipids. This allowed the recovery of lipids at the end of the bioprocess with a major fraction of lipids remaining in the biomass residues after pretreatment and saccharification. Improvements through refined biomass processing, crop management, and metabolic engineering are expected to boost lipid yields and make oilcane a prime feedstock for the production of biodiesel.
keywords:
Conversion;Feedstock Production;Feedstock Bioprocessing;Lipidomics;Metabolomics
published:
2025-12-05
Zhao, Huimin; Litman, Zachary C.; Wang, Yajie; Hartwig, John F.
(2025)
Living organisms rely on simultaneous reactions catalysed by mutually compatible and selective enzymes to synthesize complex natural products and other metabolites. To combine the advantages of these biological systems with the reactivity of artificial chemical catalysts, chemists have devised sequential, concurrent, and cooperative chemoenzymatic reactions that combine enzymatic and artificial catalysts. Cooperative chemoenzymatic reactions consist of interconnected processes that generate products in yields and selectivities that cannot be obtained when the two reactions are carried out sequentially with their respective substrates. However, such reactions are difficult to develop because chemical and enzymatic catalysts generally operate in different media at different temperatures and can deactivate each other. Owing to these constraints, the vast majority of cooperative chemoenzymatic processes that have been reported over the past 30 years can be divided into just two categories: chemoenzymatic dynamic kinetic resolutions of racemic alcohols and amines, and enzymatic reactions requiring the simultaneous regeneration of a cofactor. New approaches to the development of chemoenzymatic reactions are needed to enable valuable chemical transformations beyond this scope. Here we report a class of cooperative chemoenzymatic reaction that combines photocatalysts that isomerize alkenes with ene-reductases that reduce carbon–carbon double bonds to generate valuable enantioenriched products. This method enables the stereoconvergent reduction of E/Z mixtures of alkenes or reduction of the unreactive stereoisomers of alkenes in yields and enantiomeric excesses that match those obtained from the reduction of the pure, more reactive isomers. The system affords a range of enantioenriched precursors to biologically active compounds. More generally, these results show that the compatibility between photocatalysts and enzymes enables chemoenzymatic processes beyond cofactor regeneration and provides a general strategy for converting stereoselective enzymatic reactions into stereoconvergent ones.
keywords:
Conversion;Catalysis
planned publication date:
2026-02-01
Edmonds, Devin A.; Fanomezantsoa, Rebecca E.; Rabibisoa, Nirhy H. C.; Roberts, Sam H.
(2026)
This dataset contains ecological and demographic data for William’s bright‑eyed frog (Boophis williamsi), a critically endangered amphibian restricted to the Ankaratra Massif in Madagascar’s central highlands. Field surveys were conducted between September 2018 – March 2019 and July 2021 across ten 100‑m stream transects to estimate abundance and identify habitat associations for both tadpoles and adult frogs. Data include repeated counts of individuals and associated habitat variables (e.g., canopy cover, substrate type, stream depth, discharge, and temperature). Abundance was estimated using N‑mixture models implemented in R (version 4.3.1) with the ubms package, with separate models for tadpoles and frogs to account for differences in detection probability. The dataset consists of multiple CSV files capturing microhabitat, environmental variables, and raw survey count data (y_frogs.csv and y_tadpoles.csv) and an R script (boophis_abundance.R) used for model fitting. The dataset was compiled for an article accepted in the Herpetological Journal by the British Herpetological Society and is intended to support long‑term monitoring and conservation planning for B. williamsi and other threatened amphibians in Madagascar.
keywords:
amphibian conservation; biodiversity conservation; detection probability; endangered species; N-mixture model
published:
2025-05-01
Wang, Weiwei; Khanna, Madhu
(2025)
BEPAM, Biofuel and Environmental Policy Analysis Model, models the agricultural sector and determines economically optimal land-use and feedstock mix at the US scale by maximizing the sum of agricultural sector consumers’ and producers’ surplus subject to various resource balances, land availability, and technological constraints under a range of biomass prices, from zero to $140 Mg-1 over the 2016-2030 period. Here BEPAM is used to model SAF production using energy crops and crop residues. BEPAM uses the GAMS format and uses yield and GHG balance projections from the biogeochemical model, DayCent.
keywords:
BEPAM; Energy crops; direct and indirect land use change; soil carbon sequestration; fossil fuel displacement; economic incentives
published:
2025-12-02
Zhou, Yu; Mirts, Evan N.; Yook, Sangdo; Waugh, Matthew; Martini, Rachel; Jin, Yong-Su; Lu, Yi
(2025)
Engineering enzymes with novel reactivity and applying them in metabolic pathways to produce valuable products are quite challenging due to the intrinsic complexity of metabolic networks and the need for high in vivo catalytic efficiency. Triacetic acid lactone (TAL), naturally generated by 2-pyrone synthase (2PS), is a platform molecule that can be produced via microbial fermentation and further converted into value-added products. However, these conversions require extra synthetic steps under harsh conditions. We herein report a biocatalytic system for direct generation of TAL derivatives under mild conditions with controlled chemoselectivity by rationally engineering the 2PS active site and then rewiring the biocatalytic pathway in the metabolic network of E. coli to produce high-value products, such as kavalactone precursors, with yields up to 17 mg/L culture. Computer modeling indicates sterics and hydrogen-bond interactions play key roles in tuning the selectivity, efficiency, and yield.
keywords:
Conversion;Metabolomics
published:
2025-12-02
Cheng, Ming-Hsun; Maitra, Shraddha; Carr Clennon, Aidan N.; Appell, Michael; Dien, Bruce; Singh, Vijay
(2025)
The recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass necessitates an efficient pretreatment protocol for operating a successful cellulosic biorefinery. It is critical to improve cellulose accessibility for hydrolysis and fermentation by altering the plant cell wall’s physical structure and chemical composition. Sequential hydrothermal-mechanical refining pretreatment (HMR) allows efficient recovery of cellulosic sugars without utilizing any hazardous chemicals. HMR has been successfully applied to Liberty switchgrass, a bioenergy cultivar released by the USDA, and now it is being applied to oilcane, a recently developed transgenic sugarcane variety engineered to accumulate lipids in its vegetative tissues. Sugar yields of oilcane bagasse (OCB) and switchgrass (SG) treated with HMR are 96.4% and 75.4%, respectively. This study sought to correlate cellulosic sugar yields with structural changes within the cell wall caused by HMR on two distinct bioenergy crops. Simon’s staining technique for the specific surface area analysis showed that HMR increased the specific surface area of pretreated biomass residues by 80-112%. In addition, ATR-FTIR was performed to determine the effects of HMR on physical structures based on the total crystallinity index (TCI) and hydrogen bonding intensity (HBI). Irrespective of biomass type, HMR decreased the initial crystalline cellulose contents of untreated biomass residues by 3.5% and reduced TCI and HBI by 7-13%. The study found that sugar yields were negatively correlated to reducing values of hydrogen bonding intensity, crystalline cellulose content, and total crystallinity index.
keywords:
Conversion;Biomass Analytics;Economics;Hydrolysate
published:
2025-12-01
Mori, Jameson; Zilinger, Amber; Neumann, Julia; Pentrak, Martin; Paton, Tim; Novakofski, Jan; Mateus-Pinilla, Nohra
(2025)
This dataset measurements for the following soil components from soil samples collected in northern Illinois between 2023 and 2024. Two file formats containing the same data are offered (Excel spreadsheet and CSV):
1. Soil clay minerals (illite, kaolinite, chlorite, and smectite)
2. pH
3. Other soil minerals: aluminum (Al), arsenic (As), barium (Ba), boron aluminide (Bal), calcium (Ca), cadmium (Cd), chloride (Cl), cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), mercury (Hg), molybdenum (Mo), nobium (Nb), nickel (Ni), potassium (K), phosphorous (P), lead (Pb), palladium (Pd), rubidium (Rb), silver (Ag), sulfur (S), thorium (Th), titanium (Ti), uranium (U), vanadium (V), yttrium (Y), zinc (Zn), and zirconium (Zr)
Samples were collected on the side of public roads within the right of way. X-ray diffraction was used to quantify soil clay components, while other soil minerals were measured using a Niton XL5 Plus Analyzer. pH was measured using a Yinmik YK-S01 Digital Soil pH Tester. Samples were collected as part of a project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) to examine the role of soil characteristics on chronic wasting disease (CWD) persistence in northern Illinois, USA.
keywords:
CWD; chronic wasting disease; soil; clay; pH; mineral; environmental transmission; X-ray diffraction
published:
2025-11-26
Maitra, Shraddha; Singh, Vijay
(2025)
5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) and furfurals are DOE-listed platform chemicals that can be derived from the renewable carbon in the lignocellulosic biomasses and have the potential to replace petroleum-derived alternatives. High substrate cost and use of expensive solvents limit the economic feasibility of bio-based HMF production on an industrially relevant scale. The study presents an experimental optimized condition that maximizes the chemical-free production of HMF and furfurals without lowering the yield of total fermentable sugars from Saccharum bagasse. Hydrothermal pretreatment at 210 °C for 15 min yielded approximately 10%, 12%, and 46% of HMF, furfurals, and fermentable sugars per gram of dry biomass, respectively. Additionally, the study proposes a consolidated bioprocess model to produce and recover four high-value bioproducts i.e., HMF, furfurals, ethanol, and acetic acid based on the experimental results and evaluates its technoeconomic feasibility considering HMF as the main product. The minimum selling price (MSP) of HMF was estimated to be 930.6 USD/t which is competitive with its petroleum-derived precursor alternative p-xylene (1,113 USD/t). The sensitivity analysis performed for the process parameters suggests that pretreatment cost and revenues from coproducts immensely influence the MSP of HMF. The preliminary technoeconomic analysis performed on the consolidated bioprocess design indicates that additional revenue streams from diversified coproducts in biorefineries aid in lowering the MSP of high-value bioproducts.
keywords:
Conversion;Economics
published:
2025-11-24
Li, Maolin; Harrison, Wesley; Zhang, Zhengyi; Yuan, Yujie; Zhao, Huimin
(2025)
Strategies for achieving asymmetric catalysis with azaarenes have traditionally fallen short of accomplishing remote stereocontrol, which would greatly enhance accessibility to distinct azaarenes with remote chiral centres. The primary obstacle to achieving superior enantioselectivity for remote stereocontrol has been the inherent rigidity of the azaarene ring structure. Here we introduce an ene-reductase system capable of modulating the enantioselectivity of remote carbon-centred radicals on azaarenes through a mechanism of chiral hydrogen atom transfer. This photoenzymatic process effectively directs prochiral radical centres located more than six chemical bonds, or over 6 Å, from the nitrogen atom in azaarenes, thereby enabling the production of a broad array of azaarenes possessing a remote γ-stereocentre. Results from our integrated computational and experimental investigations underscore that the hydrogen bonding and steric effects of key amino acid residues are important for achieving such high stereoselectivities.
keywords:
Conversion;Catalysis
published:
2025-11-24
Nguyen, Viviana; Xue, Pu; Li, Yifei; Zhao, Huimin; Lu, Ting
(2025)
Microbial growth emerges from coordinated synthesis of various cellular components from limited resources. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, cyclic AMP (cAMP)-mediated signaling is shown to orchestrate cellular metabolism; however, it remains unclear quantitatively how the controlling circuit drives resource partition and subsequently shapes biomass growth. Here we combined experiment with mathematical modeling to dissect the signaling-mediated growth optimization of S. cerevisiae. We showed that, through cAMP-mediated control, the organism achieves maximal or nearly maximal steady-state growth during the utilization of multiple tested substrates as well as under perturbations impairing glucose uptake. However, the optimal cAMP concentration varies across cases, suggesting that different modes of resource allocation are adopted for varied conditions. Under settings with nutrient alterations, S. cerevisiae tunes its cAMP level to dynamically reprogram itself to realize rapid adaptation. Moreover, to achieve growth maximization, cells employ additional regulatory systems such as the GCN2-mediated amino acid control. This study establishes a systematic understanding of global resource allocation in S. cerevisiae, providing insights into quantitative yeast physiology as well as metabolic strain engineering for biotechnological applications.
keywords:
Conversion;Metabolomics;Modeling
published:
2025-11-24
Dubinkina, Veronika; Bhogale, Shounak; Hsieh, Ping-Hung; Dibaeinia, Payam; Nambiar, Ananthan; Maslov, Sergei; Yoshikuni, Yasuo; Sinha, Saurabh
(2025)
Because of its natural stress tolerance to low pH, Issatchenkia orientalis (a.k.a. Pichia kudriavzevii) is a promising non-model yeast for bio-based production of organic acids. Yet, this organism is relatively unstudied, and specific mechanisms of its tolerance to low pH are poorly understood, limiting commercial use. In this study, we selected 12 I. orientalis strains with varying acid stress tolerance (six tolerant and six susceptible) and profiled their transcriptomes in different pH conditions to study potential mechanisms of pH tolerance in this species. We identified hundreds of genes whose expression response is shared by tolerant strains but not by susceptible strains, or vice versa, as well as genes whose responses are reversed between tolerant and susceptible strains. We mapped regulatory mechanisms of transcriptomic responses via motif analysis as well as differential network reconstruction, identifying several transcription factors, including Stb5, Mac1, and Rtg1/Rtg3, some of which are known for their roles in acid response in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Functional genomics analysis of short-listed genes and transcription factors suggested significant roles for energy metabolism and translation-related processes, as well as the cell wall integrity pathway and RTG-dependent retrograde signaling pathway. Finally, we conducted additional experiments for two organic acids, 3-hydroxypropionate and citramalate, to eliminate acid-specific effects and found potential roles for glycolysis and trehalose biosynthesis specifically for response to low pH. In summary, our approach of comparative transcriptomics and phenotypic contrasting, along with a multi-pronged bioinformatics analysis, suggests specific mechanisms of tolerance to low pH in I. orientalis that merit further validation through experimental perturbation and engineering.
keywords:
Conversion;Transcriptomics
published:
2025-11-24
Maitra, Shraddha; Cheng, Ming-Hsun; Liu, Hui; Cao, Viet Dang; Kannan, Baskaran; Long, Stephen; Shanklin, John; Altpeter, Fredy; Singh, Vijay
(2025)
Development of sustainable and scalable technologies to convert lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels is critical to achieving carbon neutrality. The potential of transgenic bioenergy crops as a renewable source of sugars and lipids has been demonstrated at bench-scale. However, scaling up these processes is important for holistic analysis. Here proof-of-concept for chemical-free hydrothermal pretreatment of transgenic energycane-oilcane line L13 at an industrially relevant scale to recover vegetative lipids along with cellulosic sugars is presented. Pilot-scale processing of 97 kg of transgenic energycane-oilcane L13 stems and high solids pretreatment of bagasse enhanced the recovery of cellulosic glucose and xylose by 5-fold as compared to untreated bagasse and helped in the enrichment of vegetative lipids in the biomass residues which allowed its recovery at the end of the bioprocess. Palmitic and oleic acids were the predominant fatty acids (FAs) extracted from stems and leaves. The processing did not affect lipid composition. The efficiency of lipid recovery from untreated biomass was 75.9% which improved to 88.7% upon pretreatment. The vegetative tissues of transgenic energycane-oilcane L13 contained 0.42 metric tons/hectare of lipids. Processing vegetative tissues yielded 0.38 metric tons/hectare of lipids. This approaches an oil yield similar to soybean (global average 0.44 metric tons/hectare) and is almost twice as high as the oil yield from sugarcane engineered to hyperaccumulate lipids (0.20 metric tons/hectare). The study suggests that further optimization by state-of-the-art metabolic engineering and biomass processing can establish transgenic bioenergy crops for commercial drop-in fuel production.
keywords:
Conversion;Feedstock Production;Biomass Analytics;Energycane;Lipidomics