Abstract
Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is being used to study the molecular structure of tiller biomass from switchgrass, a perennial North American prairie grass that is being developed as a bioenergy crop. To enable the expanded application of SANS methods, switchgrass plants were cultivated in hydroponic media containing 50% D2O to produce tiller biomass with 34% deuterium incorporation. Characterization of the deuterated biomass found chemical and physical properties similar to the same cultivar grown hydroponically in H2O but with slightly increased lignin content. Surprisingly, the deuterated switchgrass was found to be less recalcitrant to enzymatic hydrolysis. Investigation with transmission electron microscopy found changes in lignin deposition patterns in deuterated cell walls. The partially deuterated switchgrass and its control were studied by contrast variation SANS to evaluate deuterium incorporation into the different plant polymers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 17-32 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | ACS Symposium Series |
| Volume | 1338 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2019 |
Funding
This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, through the Genomic Science Program, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, under Contract FWP ERKP752. The research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for Structural Molecular Biology (CSMB) was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, through the Office of Biological and Environmental Research under Contract FWP ERKP291, using facilities supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Qiu Zhang at the CSMB for the preparation of samples for SANS. The D 2 O used in this research was supplied by the United States Department of Energy, Office of Science, by the Isotope Program in the Office of Nuclear Physics. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, through the Genomic Science Program Office of Biological and Environmental Research, under Contract FWP ERKP752. The research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Structural Molecular Biology (CSMB) was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, through the Office of Biological and Environmental Research under Contract FWP ERKP291, using facilities supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy. The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Qiu Zhang at the CSMB for the preparation of samples for SANS. The D2O used in this research was supplied by the United States Department of Energy, Office of Science, by the Isotope Program in the Office of Nuclear Physics. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.