Chemicals Via Higher Plant Bioengineering

Food and raw material for its production was generally produced via the traditional agriculture. On the other hand, novel chemicals were manufactured in the laboratory or extracted from plant and animal sources. However, as the world population is steadily in creasing, there is a decrease in traditional agriculture productivity and concerns are also expressed over the damage inflicted to the environment and restrictions that might be en forced in food production. At the same time, there is an increasing demand for high qual ity agricultural products as well as for food ingredients related to both the traditional or newly discovered nutrients or phytochemicals. Trends and developments,~n the area of plant biotechnology and bioengineering has allowed manipulation of genes' !lnd/or insertion of new genes, thus production of trans genic plants. Starting from the introduction of agronomic traits, particularly stress resis tance to diverse environmental factors, process and sensory characteristics, food quality and production of novel varieties of plant-based products through genetic engineering, biotechnology is changing the,;agriculture and the concept of production of plant-ba~~d raw materials. Increasing attention is being paid on research for production of plants !pat can provide a wide array of food and non-food products. Perhaps the first non-food pro,d uct that plant biotechnology would achieve is production of large scale custom-designed industrial oils, but the list of chemicals is long, ranging" from oils and specific triacyl glycerols to biopolymers, enzymes, blood components, amo~g others.

With the Twenty-Third Symposium, we sustained the tradition of providing an informal, congenial atmosphere that our participants find conducive to pursuing technical discussion of program topics. The techni cal program consisted of six sessions with 38 oral presentations, a roundtable forum, two special topic discussions and a poster session con sisting of 230 posters. A special luncheon talk on "Natural Capitalism" by Karl Rabago of the Rocky Mountain Institute was particularly enlightening. More infor mation on these provocative approaches to resources and societal needs can be found at their website, www.rmi.org. While plant biotechnology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for enzyme production and designer biomass emerged as exciting areas throughout the Symposium, the frank exchange in the special topic sessions indicated the importance of thinking beyond the purely technical details in this important research area. The preface for each session is included in the introductions. Session Chairpersons and Co-Chairpersons Session 1: Advances in Biomass Production and Processing Chair: Sharon Shoemaker, University of California, Davis, CA Co-Chair: David Boron, US Department of Energy, Washington DC Session 2: Enzyme and Microbial Biocatalysts Chair: Elba Bon, Chemistry Institute, UFRI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Co-Chair: Steve Picataggio, Dupont Central, Wilmington, DE Session 3: Bioprocess Research and Development Chair: Guido Zacchi, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden Co-Chair: Mark Holtzapple, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX Session 4: Oil and Ethanol: An Excellent Mix? Chair: Carol Tombari, Mountain Energy Consultation LLC, Conifer, CO Session 5: Emerging Biorefinery Opportunities

th With the 25 Symposium, we continued the tradition of providing an informal, congenial atmosphere that our participants found conducive to discussing technical program topics. This year's topics included: Session lA Feedstock Supply, Logistics, Processing, and Composition Session IB Enzyme Catalysis and Engineering Session 2 Microbial Catalysis and Engineering Session 3 Bioprocessing including Separations Session 4 Biotechnology for Fuels and Chemicals-Past, Present, and Future Session 5 Biobased Industrial Chemicals Session 6A Biomass Pretreatment and Hydrolysis Session 6B Plant Biotechnology and Feedstock Genomics Special Topics A Microbial Pentose Metabolism Special Topics B International Bioenergy Agency Bioethanol Meeting A summary of these sessions is included at the beginning of each section of the Proceedings. The technical core of the Symposium remains the creation, manipulation, and practical use of new biocatalysts to pro duce useful fuels and chemicals. This was shown in both fundamental science discoveries as well as progress reports from commercialization efforts. However, we have continued to expand interest into the bio feedstock (plant genomics, production, and pretreatment). While the pro duction of sugars from biomass and their subsequent bioconversion into chemicals remains the dominant thrust, areas such as gasification and direct production in plants were presented. The use of molecular biology and genomics to provide new biocatalysts as well as understanding the fundamentals of the microbes, enzymes, and biomass has increased the likely achievement of both near and long-term commercialization goals. This year Dr. J.

industry, and 22% were from government. A total of oral presentations (including Special Topic presentations) and 329 poster presentations were delivered. The high number of poster submissions required splitting the poster session into two evening sessions. (Conference details are posted at http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/biotech_symposium/.) Almost 35% of the attendees were international, showing the strong and building worldwide interest in this area. Nations represented included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Central African Republic, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Ki- dom, and Venezuela, as well as the United States. One of the focus areas for bioconversion of renewable resources into fuels is conversion of lignocellulose into sugars and the conversion of s- ars into fuels and other products. This focus is continuing to expand toward the more encompassing concept of the integrated multiproduct biorefinery--where the production of multiple fuel, chemical, and energy products occurs at one site using a combination of biochemical and ther- chemical conversion technologies. The biorefinery concept continues to grow as a unifying framework and vision, and the biorefinery theme f- tured prominently in many talks and presentations. However, another emerging theme was the importance of examining and optimizing the entire biorefining process rather than just its bioconversion-related elements.

Early integration is the key to success in industrial biotechnology. This is as true when a selected wild-type organism is put to work as when an organism is engineered for a purpose. The present volume Engineering and Manufacturing for Biotechnology took advantage of the 9th European Congress on Biotechnology (Brussels, Belgium, July 11-15, 1999): in the topics handled and in the expertise of the contributors, the engineering science symposia of this congress offered just what was needed to cover the important topic of integration of process engineering and biological research. The editors have solicited a number of outstanding contributions to illustrate the intimate interaction between productive organisms and the numerous processing steps running from the initial inoculation to the packaged product. Upstream processing of the feed streams, selection of medium components, product harvesting, downstream processing, and product conditioning are just a few major steps. Each step imposes a number of important choices. Every choice is to be balanced against time to market, profitability, safety, and ecology.

Contains case studies illustrating the cell culture production of pigments, flavors, and antineoplastic compounds Plant Biotechnology and Transgenic Plants covers topics that range from food to fragrances to fuel. It includes discussions of technologies and research on the engineering, synthesis, utilization, and control of primary and secondary pl

Genetically modified foods present numerous ethical, environmental, health and legal challenges. This report synthesizes information from many websites, scientific journals, newspapers and books that discuss the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods. The author has attempted to show that although the future applications of agrobiotechnology appear promising, the ways in which it is currently being used and regulated should be evaluated with a healthy degree of skepticism.

The genesis of the volume, Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Markers, has been the occasion of the retirement of Professor Sant Saran Bhojwani from the Department of Botany, University of Delhi. For Professor Bhojwani, retirement only means relinquishing the chair as being a researcher and a teacher which has always been a way of life to him. Professor Bhojwani has been an ardent practitioner of modern plant biology and areas like Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Breeding have been close to his heart. The book contains original as well as review articles contributed by his admirers and associates who are experts in their area of research. While planning this contributory book our endeavour has been to incorporate articles that cover the entire gamut of Plant Biotechnology, and also applications of Molecular Markers. Besides articles on in vitro fertilization and micropropagation, there are articles on forest tree improvement through genetic engineering. Considering the importance of conservation of our precious natural wealth, one article deals with cryopreservation of plant material. Chapter on molecular marker considers DNA indexing as markers of clonal fidelity of in vitro regenerated plants and prevention against bio-piracy. A couple of write-ups also cover stage-specific gene markers, DNA polymorphism and genetic engineering, including raising of stress tolerant plants to sustain productivity and help in reclamation of degraded land.