Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
An immature embryo system enhanced the amenability of oil palm to in vitro manipulations. Oil
palm was recently transformed with polyhydroxyvalerate gene using
Agrobacterium
-mediated gene
transfer (Faud et al. 2008). The giant gene construct used in this experiment included pFA2 (binary
vector, ~24.4 kb) and pFA3 (super binary vector, ~39.4 kb) that contained several genes (
bkt
B,
pha
B,
pha
C, and
tdc
B) essential for the synthesis of polyhydroxyvalerate. This construct was effectively
transferred to the immature embryos using
Agrobacterium
-mediated transformation.
3.6 conclusIons
Biofuel is the future fuel because it is a renewable, less polluting, and environment friendly sustain-
able fuel. Major challenges for the biofuel industry include but are not limited to (1) production of
biofuel feedstocks at a reasonable cost and in sufficient quantities, (2) cost-effective transportation
of the biomass to processing facilities, and (3) cost-effective processing of biomass into biofuels
and developing methods for cost-effective, environment friendly utilization of by-products of the
processing. A combination of biotechnologies such as genomics, marker-assisted breeding, and
genetic engineering has the potential to accelerate breeding to develop biofuel crops that are more
productive and highly adapted to abiotic and biotic stress. Availability of such novel biofuel crop
cultivars may increase acreage and production of biofuel crops to meet the ever-increasing demand
for biofuel feedstocks without affecting the global food security. However, it is not clear at this
moment as to which crop will be the “winner” among several crops in terms of being cost-effective
for large-scale production of biofuels.
reFerences
Abdulla R, Zainal A, Heng WY, Li LC, Beng YC, Phing LM, Sirajuddin SA, Ping WPS, Joseph JL (2005)
Immature embryo: A useful tool for oil palm (
Elaeis guineensis
Jacq.) genetic transformation studies.
Electron J Biotechnol
8(1):24-34
Abogbo FK, Coward-Kelly G (2008) Cellulosic ethanol production using the naturally occurring xylose-
fermenting yeast.
Pichia stipitis
Biotechnol Lett
30:1515-1524
Abramson M, Shoseyov O, Shani Z (2010) Plant cell wall reconstruction toward improved lignocellulosic
production and processability.
Plant Sci
178:61-72
Achten WMJ, Mathijs E (2007) Jatropha biodiesel fueling sustainability?
Biofuels Bioproducts Biorefining
1:283-291
Ajanovic A (2010) Biofuels versus food production: Does biofuels production increase food prices?
Energy
,
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2010.05.019
Al-Zuhair S (2007) Production of biodiesel: Possibilities and challenges.
Biofuel Bioprod Biorefin
1:57-66
Andrade JE, Pérez A, Sebastian PJ, Eapen D (2011) A review of bio-diesel production processes.
Biomass
Bioenergy
35:1008-1020
Arencibia A, Carmona E, Cornide M, Oramas P, Sala F (1999) Somaclonal variation in insect resistant
transgenic sugarcane (
Saccharum
hybrids) plants produced by cell electroporation.
Transgen Res
8:349-360
Arencibia A, Monila P, de la Riva G, Selman-Houssein G (1995) Production of transgenic sugarcane (
Saccharum
officinarum
L) plants by intact cell electroporation.
Biotechnol Appl
9:156-165
Baba K, Park YW, Kaku T, Kaida R, Takeuchi M, Yoshida M, Hosoo Y, Ojio Y, Okuyama T, Taniguchi
T, T, Ohmiya Y, Kondo T, Shani Z, Shoseyov O, Awano T, Serada S, Norioka N, Norioka S, Hayashi T
(2009) Xyloglucan for Generating Tensile Stress to Bend Tree Stem.
Molecular Plant
2(5):893-903
Babu BV (2008) Biomass pyrolysis: A state-of-the-art review.
Biofuel Bioprod Biorefin
2:393-414
Balat M, Balat H (2009) Recent trends in global production and utilization of bio-ethanol fuel.
Appl Energy
86:2273-2282
Barriere Y, Ralph J, Mechin V, Guillaumie S, Grabber JH, Argillier O, Chabbert B, Lapierre C (2004) Genetic
and molecular basis of grass cell wall biosynthesis and degradability. II. Lessons from brown-midrib
mutants.
Crit Rev Biol
327:847-860
Bhalla PL, Singh MB (2008)
Agrobacterium
-mediated transformation of
Brassica napus
and
Brassica olera-
cea
.
Nat Protocols
3:181-189
