A group of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory has identified the key genes involved in oil production and accumulation in plant leaves and vegetative plant tissues. Increased expression of these genes resulted in increased oil content in leaves – plant’s most abundant source of biomass. This finding could help increase… »

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) have devised a strategy which enables a boost in biofuel production. After studying an enzyme that naturally produces alkanes, the researchers figured how to make its reaction ongoing instead stopping after three to five cycles. The findings renew interest in using the enzyme in… »

In a first step toward achieving industrial-scale green production, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at Dow AgroSciences reported engineering a plant that produces industrially relevant levels of compounds that could potentially be used to make plastics. The research is reported online in Plant Physiology, and will appear… »