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SyPro Poplar: Improving Poplar Biomass Production under Abiotic Stress Conditions: an
Integrated Omics, Bioinformatics, Synthetic Biology and Genetic Engineering Approach


EMSL Project ID
51636

Abstract

To engineer bioenergy crops that can grow in dry, marginal
lands, this project will introduce into poplar trees tolerance
to different environmental stresses such as water deficit,
high soil salinity, and heat. As plants are often exposed
to combinations of these different types of abiotic stress,
poplar lines will be engineered to express multiple stressrelated
genes, each one controlled by a synthetic promoter
that is only induced under specific stress conditions and
within the tissues where its function is needed, improving
biomass production under unfavorable conditions while
avoiding negative effects of unwanted transgene expression.
The project will focus on a poplar hybrid clone for which
a genome sequence is available and will design tissue- and
stress-specific synthetic promoters using plant promoter
databases and computational tools to identify cis-regulatory
elements.

Project Details

Start Date
2020-11-17
End Date
2023-09-30
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Amir Ahkami
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Team Members

Vimal Kumar Balasubramanian
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Tanya Winkler
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Allison Thompson
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Sarah Williams
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Dusan Velickovic
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Ying Zhu
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Ryan McClure
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Jonathan Cumming
Institution
West Virginia University

Christopher Anderton
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Hugh Mitchell
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Lye Meng Markillie
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Tamas Varga
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

William Chrisler
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Samuel Purvine
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Kim Hixson
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Lee Ann McCue
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Ryan Kelly
Institution
Brigham Young University

Ziyu Dai
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Galya Orr
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory