Sequenced at the DOE JGI, Brachypodium distachyon is a small temperate grass that is being used as a model for potential energy crops such as switchgrass, sorghum, and Miscanthus. One of the goals in cultivating bioenergy crops is producing enough biomass to convert and use for biofuel production to meet the nation’s needs. This project focuses on developing and assembling several dozen open reading frames (ORFs), parts of genes that encode proteins. In this case, the ORFs encode B. distachyon transcription factors which bind to specific DNA sequences and can regulate the flow of genetic information. These ORFs will help form the basis of a grass transcription factor library that can then be used for numerous functional studies, including improving yields of energy crops.
Proposer’s Name: Samuel P. Hazen