In this study, tassels of Cave-in-Rock (upland) and Alamo (lowland) were removed at or near tassel emergence to explore its effects on biomass production and quality. Tassel-removed (TR) Cave-in-Rock and Alamo both exhibited a significant (P<0.05) increase in plant heights (not including tassel length), tiller number, and aboveground biomass dry weight (10% and 12%, 30% and 13%, 13% and 18%, re...

A direct shear cell to measure the shear strength and flow properties of chopped switchgrass, wheat straw and corn stover was designed, fabricated, and tested. The shear strength measured at various normal stresses was found to be significantly different. Shear strength for all three chopped biomass types measured at a particular normal stress was not significantly different. The R value of the...

Atrazine is a widely used herbicide in agriculture. Non-point source contamination of groundwater and drinking water may pose a significant threat to humans, wildlife, and the environment. Phytoremediation may provide a cost-effective strategy for reducing non-point source contamination of atrazine from agricultural runoff. Previous studies have shown that the rhizosphere of the native prairie ...

Development of cellulosic biofuels from non-food crops is currently an area of intense research interest. Tailoring depolymerizing enzymes to particular feedstocks and pretreatment conditions is one promising avenue of research in this area. Here we added a green-waste compost inoculum to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and simulated thermophilic composting in a bioreactor to select for a switch...

The Chariton Valley Biomass Power Project, sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy Biomass Power Program, has the goal of converting switchgrass grown on marginal farmland in southern Iowa into electric power. Two energy conversion options are under evaluation: co-firing switchgrass with coal in an existing utility boiler and gasification of switchgrass for use in a carbonate fuel cell. Thi...

Hsp20 proteins exist in all plant species and represent the most abundant small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) in plants. Hsp20s were known as chaperones maintaining cellular homeostasis during heat or other kinds of abiotic stresses. The objective of this study was to understand the phylogenetic relationship, genomic organization, diversification of motif modules, genome localization, expression ...

Melatonin serves important functions in the promotion of growth and anti-stress regulation by efficient radical scavenging and regulation of antioxidant enzyme activity in various plants. To investigate its regulatory roles and metabolism pathways, the transcriptomic profile of overexpressing the ovine arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (oAANAT) gene, encoding the penultimate enzyme in melatoni...

BACKGROUND To evaluate genetic variation, population structure, and the extent of linkage disequilibrium (LD), 134 switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) samples were analyzed with 51 markers, including 16 ISSRs, 20 SCoTs, and 15 EST-SSRs. RESULTS In this study, a high level of genetic variation was observed in the switchgrass samples and they had an average Nei's gene diversity index (H) of 0.311...

Bio-oils from the fast pyrolysis of switchgrass forage and two sets of alfalfa stems (from two stages of developmentsbud and full flower stages) have been analyzed by wet-chemical methods, GC-MS, and HPLC. The chemical composition of bio-oil is important because it may give insights into its quality, stability, or suitability for downstream upgrading. Pyrolysis experiments were conducted at 500...