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Plants Deliver Beyond Nutrition
The need for a renewable and affordable source of carbon that
can sustain future economic development without negatively impacting
the environment
is now widely recognised. It is also apparent that the increasingly
high demand for fossil carbon will eventually deplete existing
stocks.
The Plant Journal is pleased to present a series of invited peer-reviewed
articles that describe processes that plants can or could use
to convert their fixed carbon into fuels and other useful products.
The articles were commissioned to provide an authoritative scientific
backdrop to inform discussion in debates on finding alternative
and reliable sources of carbon.
Co-edited by Christoph Benning from Michigan State University
and Eran Pichersky from the University of Michigan, this special
issue is freely available to download online here: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/tpj/54/4
The Special Issue is also accompanied by a podcast – an interview
with Christoph Benning, Co-Editor and Professor of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology - available to download here: http://www.gabcast.com/casts/1696/episodes/1210588423.mp3,
and an editorial, which can be viewed here: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-313X.2008.03512.x
The 17 articles in this special issue cover topics related to
the production of biofuel from plant or algal biomass. In addition,
several articles highlight the usefulness of plant s for the production
of pharmaceutical drugs and other high value chemicals and polymers.
A flavour of the scope of articles is given below.
Smith reports on how increases in yield of starch and sugars
could lead to a sustainable production of bioethanol as a liquid
transport fuel.
The major scientific and technical research challenges of utilizing
the abundance of plant cell walls as a renewable resource is discussed
in two articles by Pauly and Keegstra and Li et al.
The challenges facing the widespread adoption of biodiesel are
addressed by Durret et al.
Biofuel production from microalgae, pond scum, is discussed by
Hu et al. as an alternative to land-based agricultural production
of plant biomass that may avoid competition with food production.
Trichomes, leave hairs, are highly specialized chemical factories
that produce valuable compounds such as peppermint oil as explained
by Schillmiller et al.
The special issue clearly illustrates the scope of involvement
of plant biologists and biochemists in contributing rational solutions
to the global shortage of fossil carbon supply.
The special issue intends to provide a sound and balanced plant
biology and biochemistry background on the topic to educators
and media as well as experts and interested laypeople
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