Stephen DiFazio, assistant professor of biology in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University, has co-authored a milestone study in genome research that points to trees as the new biofuel.

The study,The genome of black cottonwood, Populus trichocarpa (Torr.&Gray),will be featured on the cover of Fridays (Sept. 15) edition of Science and includes the first complete DNA sequence of a tree. Science is the prestigious journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Populus trichocarpa, better known as the poplar tree, was chosen as a model crop for biofuel production due to its rapid growth and compact genome size.

A genome is the hereditary information encoded in an organisms DNA . The poplar is one of the tallest broadleaf hardwood trees in the western United States and grows from the Pacific coast of San Diego to Alaska.

The research team discovered 93 genes of the poplar associated with the production of cellulose, the building blocks of plant cell walls. Cellulose, the most abundant organic material on earth, can be broken down into sugar, fermented into alcohol, and distilled to produce fuel-quality ethanol.

The poplar project began in 2001 and has 108 co-authors represented from 40 institutions in 8 countries and 12 states. It supports a broader Department of Energy goal to research biofuel production under the Bush Administrations Advanced Energy Initiative.

In addition to the advancements in biofuel production, the research team, led by the U.S. Department of Energys Joint Genome Institute and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, identified more than 45,000 protein coding genes, more than any other sequenced organism. Even the human genome, which is six times larger than the poplars, has half as many protein-coding genes. The poplar is also the most complex genome to be sequenced and assembled by a single public sequencing facility.

The genome sequence is already having a profound impact on forest

biotechnology research,Dr. DiFazio said.This is greatly accelerating the discovery of genes that control many different aspects of forest tree biology, and is paving the way for marked improvements in forest plantation productivity that could rival those of the green revolution in agriculture.

DiFazio earned his doctorate and masters degrees from Oregon State University. Before joining the faculty of the WVU Department of Biology in 2005, he was a research scientist in the Environmental Sciences Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

Recently he received the WVU Award for Research Team Scholarship for his study,Mechanisms of Cadmium Tolerance in Poplar Trees.

His research interests are in plant genomics, molecular ecology, forest biotechnology and plant reproductive biology. He currently teaches molecular ecology.

I think the most far-reaching impacts of this research will be in the fields of ecology and environmental biology,he continued,since for the first time we now have, in our hands, the blueprint for understanding the intricacies of adaptation in an ecologically-dominant organism.

For more information, contact DiFazio at Stephen.Difazio@mail.wvu.edu . For an official copy of the study, contact the AAAS at scipak@aaas.org .