Innovation Cache™: Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
Below you will find a listing of the top technology transfer abstracts from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
Title: Enhancing Plant Growth and Response to Nitrogen
Reference No.: DDPSC 207-001
About the technology: Nitrogen is a vital nutrient for plant production. Scientists at the University of Missouri—St. Louis and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis have determined a method to produce transgenic plants having the ability to increase the capture and utilization of nitrogen. Phospholipase D (PLD) and its lipid product phosphatic acid (PA) play important roles in a plant’s response to various stresses, such as root development, stomal development and freezing tolerance. By altering the expression (e.g., overexpressing or underexpressing) of phospholipase Dε (PLDε), plant growth and seed production are increased. By altering the expression of PLDε, this method increases plant yield, a plant’s biomass production, and the plant’s ability to grow under hyperosmotic stress such as drought.
Applications:
- Increase plant production without increasing the amount of fertilizer (e.g., nitrogen) used
- Improve crop growth and yield under different levels of nitrogen
Benefits:
- 25% higher seed yield
- 20% longer primary root lengh
- Increase a plant’s ability to capture and utilize nitrogen (e.g. up to 40% greater use of nitrogen)
- Increase plant’s biomass production: increase in leaf size and cell number
- Increase plant growth under hyperosmotic stress
Development status:
- Method completed in Arabidopsis but applicable toward corn and soybean
IP status:
- U.S. Provisional Patent Application filed March 28, 2008
- U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application Serial Number 12/412,992 filed March 27, 2009 (publication #2010/0037351)
Lead inventor: Wang, Xuemin (Sam)
Contact: Tim Lamp - timlamp@globalpatentgroup.com
Title: A Supported Liquid Membrane-based Extraction System for Recovery of Oil from Aqueous Algal Cultures
Background: Between the late 1970s and 1990s, the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL) evaluated the economic feasibility of producing biofuels from a variety of aquatic and terrestrial photosynthetic organisms. Biofuel production from microalgae was determined to have the greatest yield/acre potential of any of the organisms screened. Microalgal biofuel production was estimated to be 8 to 24 fold greater than the best terrestrial biofuel production systems. Although promising, there is still a need for compositions, systems, and methods that provide even greater efficiencies in biofuel production from microalgae.
About the technology: Danforth Center technology provides a membrane separation system set up in a mode whereby the aqueous algal culture containing oil droplets flows through a membrane channel on the feed/retentate side, while a non-aqueous extracting solvent flows counter- or co-currently through the permeate side, partially wetting the pores of the permeate side. With pressures on each side nearly equalized, the chemical/solvent potential from aqueous to non-aqueous side of the membrane is enough to cause diffusion across the membrane and removal of the oil from the aqueous side (feed/retentate) to the non-aqueous side (permeate).
Benefits:
- Combination of the extraction and separation steps, which has been estimated as one of the most costly operations challenging the commercialization of algal biofuels.
- Allow for the use of harsher extractant materials and co-solvents by the introduction of the membrane barrier. This may be advantageous for non-destructive extraction which contacts live algal cells as well as preventing contamination of water with the extracting solvent.
Applications:
- Methods for recovery of lipid material from aqueous algal feed streams
IP protection status: Patent pending
Lead inventor: Jason Kwiatkoski
Contact: Tim Lamp - timlamp@globalpatentgroup.com
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