Research Interests:

Research Interests:Dr. Altpeter’s research program integrates traditional plant breeding, genetic transformation technology and functional genomics to identify critical heredity units and develop genetically improved biomass grasses. Lignocellulosic materials produced by biomass grasses are a promising feedstock to produce low-cost transportation fuel. Our research currently focuses on four objectives to develop genetically enhanced biomass grasses:

1. Development of plant based technologies for high level expression of cell wall degrading enzymes. Enzymatic hydrolysis is the most promising technology for reducing the costs of producing fuel ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass. However, the current high cost of cell wall degrading enzymes is the key barrier to economical production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic material. Development of chloroplast transformation technology is expected to support very high levels of enzyme expression in biomass grasses and will reduce the costs in enzyme production.
2. Metabolic engineering or targeted mutagenesis of the biomass grasses to alter their carbohydrate and lignin composition. The outcomes of this research will allow the correlation of changes in lignin and carbohydrate composition of engineered or mutagenized grasses with biomass production and ethanol-conversion-efficiency to develop superior cultivars for ethanol production.
3. Enhance environmental stress tolerance of biomass grasses by plant breeding or genetic engineering of regulatory pathways which control drought and cold stress adaptation.
4. Risk assessment and development of risk management strategies are essential components of this grass improvement program.