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At least 181 records · Page 10
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Evaluating the Utility of Permethylated Polysaccharide Solution NMR Data for Characterization of Insoluble Plant Cell Wall Polysaccharides

Plant cell wall polysaccharide analysis encompasses the utilization of a variety of analytical tools, including gas and liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry (MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. These methods provide complementary data, which enable confident structural proposals of the many complex polysaccharide structures that exist in the complex matrices of plant cell walls. However, cell walls contain fractions of varying solubilities, and a few techniques are available that can analyze all fractions simultaneously. We have discovered that permethylation affords the complete dissolution of both soluble and insoluble polysaccharide fractions of plant cell walls in organic solvents such as chloroform or acetonitrile, which can then be analyzed by a number of analytical techniques including MS and NMR. In this work, NMR structure analysis of 10 permethylated polysaccharide standards was undertaken to generate chemical shift data providing insights into spectral changes that result from permethylation of polysaccharide residues. This information is of especial relevance to the structure analysis of insoluble polysaccharide materials that otherwise are not easily investigated by solution-state NMR methodologies. The preassigned NMR chemical shift data is shown to be vital for NMR structure analysis of minor polysaccharide components of plant cell walls that are particularly difficult to assign by NMR correlation data alone. With the assigned chemical shift data, we analyzed the permethylated samples of destarched, alcohol-insoluble residues of switchgrass and poplar by two-dimensional NMR spectral profiling. Thus, we identified, in addition to the major polysaccharide components, two minor polysaccharides, namely, <5% 3-linked arabinoxylan (switchgrass) and <2% glucomannan (poplar). In particular, the position of the arabinose residue in the arabinoxylan of the switchgrass sample was confidently assigned based on chemical shift values, which are highly sensitive to local chemical environments. Furthermore, the high resolution afforded by the 1H NMR spectra of the permethylated switchgrass and poplar samples allowed facile relative quantitative analysis of their polysaccharide composition, utilizing only a few milligrams of the cell wall material. As a result, the concepts herein developed will thus facilitate NMR structure analysis of insoluble plant cell wall polysaccharides, more so of minor cell wall components that are especially challenging to analyze with current methods.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Molecular imaging of plant-microbe interactions on the Brachypodium seed surface

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) play a crucial role in biological control and pathogenic defense on and with-in plant tissues, however the mechanism(s) by which plants associate with PGPR to elicit such beneficial effects needs further study. Here, we present high mass resolution time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) imaging of Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium) seeds with and without exposure to two model PGPR, i.e., Gram-negative Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25::GFP (P.) and Gram-positive Arthrobacter chlorophenolicus A6::GFP (A.). Delayed image extraction was used to image PGPB-treated seed sections to reveal morphological changes. ToF-SIMS spectral compari-son, principal component analysis (PCA), and two-dimensional (2D) imaging show that the selected PGPR have different effects on the host seed surface, resulting in changes in chemical composition and morphology. Metabolite prod-ucts and biomarkers, such as flavonoids, phenolic com-pounds, fatty acids, and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), were ob-served on the PGPR-treated seed surfaces. These compounds had different distributions on the Brachypodium seed surface for the two PGPR, indicating that the different bacteria elicited distinct responses from the host. Our results illustrate that ToF-SIMS is an effective tool to study plant-microbe interac-tions and to provide insightful information with submicrome-ter lateral resolution of the chemical distributions associated with morphological features, potentially offering a new way to study the mechanisms underlying beneficial roles of PGPR.

PGPR, Brachypodium distachyon, ToF-SIMS, metabolit↗
DOE OSTI2015

Dominant plant taxa predict plant productivity responses to CO 2 enrichment across precipitation and soil gradients

The Earth’s atmosphere will continue to be enriched with carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) over the coming century. Carbon dioxide enrichment often reduces leaf transpiration, which in water-limited ecosystems may increase soil water content, change species abundances and increase the productivity of plant communities. The effect of increased soil water on community productivity and community change may be greater in ecosystems with lower precipitation, or on coarser-textured soils, but responses are likely absent in deserts. We tested correlations among yearly increases in soil water content, community change and community plant productivity responses to CO 2 enrichment in experiments in a mesic grassland with fine- to coarse-textured soils, a semi-arid grassland and a xeric shrubland. We found no correlation between CO 2 -caused changes in soil water content and changes in biomass of dominant plant taxa or total community aboveground biomass in either grassland type or on any soil in the mesic grassland (P > 0.60). Instead, increases in dominant taxa biomass explained up to 85% of the increases in total community biomass under CO 2 enrichment. The effect of community change on community productivity was stronger in the semi-arid grassland than in the mesic grassland,where community biomass change on one soil was not correlated with the change in either the soil water content or the dominant taxa. No sustained increases in soil water content or community productivity and no change in dominant plant taxa occurred in the xeric shrubland. Thus, community change was a crucial driver of community productivity responses to CO 2 enrichment in the grasslands, but effects of soil water change on productivity were not evident in yearly responses to CO 2 enrichment. In conclusion, future research is necessary to isolate and clarify the mechanisms controlling the temporal and spatial variations in the linkages among soil water, community change and plant productivity responses to CO 2 enrichment.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Plant SWEETs: from sugar transport to plant–pathogen interaction and more unexpected physiological roles

Abstract Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporters (SWEETs) have important roles in numerous physiological mechanisms where sugar efflux is critical, including phloem loading, nectar secretion, seed nutrient filling, among other less expected functions. They mediate low affinity and high capacity transport, and in angiosperms this family is composed by 20 paralogs on average. As SWEETs facilitate the efflux of sugars, they are highly susceptible to hijacking by pathogens, making them central players in plant–pathogen interaction. For instance, several species from the Xanthomonas genus are able to upregulate the transcription of SWEET transporters in rice (Oryza sativa), upon the secretion of transcription-activator-like effectors. Other pathogens, such as Botrytis cinerea or Erysiphe necator, are also capable of increasing SWEET expression. However, the opposite behavior has been observed in some cases, as overexpression of the tonoplast AtSWEET2 during Pythium irregulare infection restricted sugar availability to the pathogen, rendering plants more resistant. Therefore, a clear-cut role for SWEET transporters during plant–pathogen interactions has so far been difficult to define, as the metabolic signatures and their regulatory nodes, which decide the susceptibility or resistance responses, remain poorly understood. This fuels the still ongoing scientific question: what roles can SWEETs play during plant–pathogen interaction? Likewise, the roles of SWEET transporters in response to abiotic stresses are little understood. Here, in addition to their relevance in biotic stress, we also provide a small glimpse of SWEETs importance during plant abiotic stress, and briefly debate their importance in the particular case of grapevine (Vitis vinifera) due to its socioeconomic impact.

Breia, Richard↗
DOE OSTI2013

The Plant Actin Cytoskeleton Responds to Signals from Microbe-Associated Molecular Patterns

Plants are constantly exposed to a large and diverse array of microbes; however, most plants are immune to the majority of potential invaders and susceptible to only a small subset of pathogens. The cytoskeleton comprises a dynamic intracellular framework that responds rapidly to biotic stresses and supports numerous fundamental cellular processes including vesicle trafficking, endocytosis and the spatial distribution of organelles and protein complexes. For years, the actin cytoskeleton has been assumed to play a role in plant innate immunity against fungi and oomycetes, based largely on static images and pharmacological studies. To date, however, there is little evidence that the host-cell actin cytoskeleton participates in responses to phytopathogenic bacteria. Here, we quantified the spatiotemporal changes in host-cell cytoskeletal architecture during the immune response to pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. Two distinct changes to host cytoskeletal arrays were observed that correspond to distinct phases of plant-bacterial interactions i.e. the perception of microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) during pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and perturbations by effector proteins during effector-triggered susceptibility (ETS). We demonstrate that an immediate increase in actin filament abundance is a conserved and novel component of PTI. Notably, treatment of leaves with a MAMP peptide mimic was sufficient to elicit a rapid change in actin organization in epidermal cells, and this actin response required the host-cell MAMP receptor kinase complex, including FLS2, BAK1 and BIK1. Finally, we found that actin polymerization is necessary for the increase in actin filament density and that blocking this increase with the actin-disrupting drug latrunculin B leads to enhanced susceptibility of host plants to pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Novel Charfuel® Coal Refining Process 18 TPD Pilot Plant Project for Co- Producing an Upgraded Coal Product, and Commercially Valuable Co- Products: Area of Interest #3 – Coal Beneficiation Pilot Plant Testing (Final Report)

Operation of Carbon Fuels, LLC’s (“CF”) existing, permitted 18 TPD pilot plant located in Golden, Colorado using two individually ranked (ASTM D 388) coal types (two campaigns), employing the novel Charfuel® coal refining process to produce an upgraded coal product and a number of high-valued organic and inorganic coproducts (for which there presently exists large commercial markets) in order to produce engineering and product data which will then be utilized toward the design of a commercial scale integrated facility (pre-feed document). Carbon Fuels, LLC has developed the Charfuel® Coal Refining Process which refines domestically abundant, raw coal (in the same manner as crude oil is refined) to produce the identical, high value co-products that are refined from crude oil. Thus, gasoline, jet fuel, “green diesel”, fuel oil, and marine fuels, as well as petrochemicals such as benzene, toluene, xylene, and methanol are refined from raw coal using this process. The Charfuel® Coal Refining Process is not a coal conversion process, like pyrolysis, or indirect liquefaction. Nor is it an alternative energy system. Rather it is a coal refining process that has the ability to economically produce products traditionally associated with the refining of crude oil but using only abundant, raw coal as the refinery feed stock. The Charfuel® Coal Refining Process is more economical than crude oil refining and is environmentally benign. Therefore, this value added process yields a return on investment well above 50% for a commercial facility. Furthermore, the Charfuel® process, unlike alternatives such as ethanol and hydrogen, can utilize the existing transportation, delivery, and other petroleum based systems. Hence, there is no need for new engines, pipelines, tankers, or product acceptance. As a result, the profitability of the process is increased. Objectives: (1) Operation of the integrated 18 tpd pilot plant, using two coal types (ranks); (2) Demonstration of process flexibility in being able to produce different products (gas, liquid, and char), as well as determination of operating parameters for identifying scale up criteria for two coal types (ranks); (3) Generation of engineering and design information (process specifications) for use in designing a commercial scale plant (scale-up); (4) Determination of important environmental issues surrounding the process and the products such as fate of trace elements (mercury and other heavy metals) and distributions of SO2, NOx, and CO 2 by analysis of effluent streams; (5) Production of sufficient product to allow reliable commercial economic evaluation of both the refined coal product and the coproducts; and, (6) Assessment of longer-term reliability of unit operations. Period 1: reconfiguration of the 18 TPD plant to meet specific FOA requirements and to qualify the facility for operation; and, Period 2: operation of the 18 TPD plant for two campaigns using two coals types (ranks) which are widely commercially used and abundant - the first being a subbituminous (Powder River Basin (“PRB”)) coal, and the second a bituminous (Illinois #6) coal.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2024

Hybrid Power Plants: Status of Operating and Proposed Plants, 2024 Edition [Slides]

Improving battery technology and the growth of variable renewable generation are driving a surge of interest in “hybrid” power plants that combine, for example, wind or solar generating capacity with co-located batteries. While most of the current interest involves pairing photovoltaic (PV) plants with batteries, other types of hybrid or co-located plants with wide-ranging configurations have been part of the U.S. electricity mix for decades. This annually updated briefing tracks and maps existing hybrid or co-located plants across the United States while also synthesizing data from power purchase agreements (PPAs) and generation interconnection queues to shed light on near- and long-term development pipelines. The scope includes “co-located hybrids” that pair two or more resources (e.g., multiple types of generation and/or generation with storage) that are operated largely independently behind a single point of interconnection, and “full hybrids” that also feature coordinated operations of the co-located resources. The focus is on plants with one megawatt (MW) or more of capacity; smaller (often behind-the-meter) projects are also increasingly common, but are not included in this data synthesis.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1990

Plants and men in space - A new field in plant physiology

Results are presented on a comparison of nutritional values of and human psychological responses to algae and of higher plants considered for growth as food on long-term missions in space, together with the technological complexities of growing these plants. The comparison shows the advantages of higher plants, with results suggesting that a high level of material recycling can be obtained. It is noted that the issue of space gravity may be not a major problem for plants because of the possibility that phototropism can provide an alternative sense of direction. Problems of waste recycling can be solved in association with plant cultivation, and a high degree of autonomy of food production can be obtained.

Andre, M.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Preflight Definition and Verification Testing for the Plant Habitat-07 Experiment to Study Substrate Moisture Impacts on Lettuce Plant and Microbiome Development

Delivering adequate water and oxygen to root zones of crops growing in microgravity is challenging due to the complex behavior of fluids and gasses during spaceflight. Chronic excess (flood) or insufficient (drought) water levels, or intermittent watering and wilting of plants, leads to alterations in plant growth and impacts on the nutritional and microbial composition of those plants. PH-07 will apply controlled water stress to assess and quantify changes in plant growth and the microbiome of a well-tested food crop, ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce, grown in NASA’s Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) on the ISS.

Gioia Massa↗
DOE OSTI2012

State estimation of an acid gas removal (AGR) plant as part of an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant with CO2 capture

An accurate estimation of process state variables not only can increase the effectiveness and reliability of process measurement technology, but can also enhance plant efficiency, improve control system performance, and increase plant availability. Future integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants with CO2 capture will have to satisfy stricter operational and environmental constraints. To operate the IGCC plant without violating stringent environmental emission standards requires accurate estimation of the relevant process state variables, outputs, and disturbances. Unfortunately, a number of these process variables cannot be measured at all, while some of them can be measured, but with low precision, low reliability, or low signal-to-noise ratio. As a result, accurate estimation of the process variables is of great importance to avoid the inherent difficulties associated with the inaccuracy of the data. Motivated by this, the current paper focuses on the state estimation of an acid gas removal (AGR) process as part of an IGCC plant with CO2 capture. This process has extensive heat and mass integration and therefore is very suitable for testing the efficiency of the designed estimators in the presence of complex interactions between process variables. The traditional Kalman filter (KF) (Kalman, 1960) algorithm has been used as a state estimator which resembles that of a predictor-corrector algorithm for solving numerical problems. In traditional KF implementation, good guesses for the process noise covariance matrix (Q) and the measurement noise covariance matrix (R) are required to obtain satisfactory filter performance. However, in the real world, these matrices are unknown and it is difficult to generate good guesses for them. In this paper, use of an adaptive KF will be presented that adapts Q and R at every time step of the algorithm. Results show that very accurate estimations of the desired process states, outputs or disturbances can be achieved by using the adaptive KF.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Methods of improving drought and salt resistance in a plant and genetically engineered plants with improved drought and salt resistance

The present disclosure provides methods for increasing drought resistance, salt resistance, and biomass production of a plant. The methods encompass expression of DiGeorge-Syndrome Critical Region 14 (DGCR14) gene in the plant. In comparison to a plant not manipulated in this manner, the disclosed, genetically-modified, plants display improved drought resistance and salt resistance. Also provided are plants that can be obtained by the method according to the invention, and nucleic acid vectors to be used in the described methods.

Xie, Meng↗
DOE OSTI2014

State-of-the-art of non-destructive testing methods and technologies for application to nuclear power plant safety-related concrete structures

The inspection of nuclear power plant concrete structures presents challenges different from conventional civil engineering structures. Wall thicknesses can be in excess of one meter and the structures often have increased steel reinforcement density with more complex detailing. The accessibility for any testing method may be limited due to the presence of liners and other components and there can be a number of penetrations or cast-in-place items present. The objective of the report is to present the state-of-the art of non-destructive testing methods and technologies for the inspection of thick, heavily-reinforced nuclear power plant concrete cross-sections with particular respect to: •locating steel reinforcement and identification of its cover depth •locating tendon ducts and identification of the condition of the grout materials •detection of cracking, voids, delamination, and honeycombing in concrete structures •detection of inclusions of different materials or voids adjacent to the concrete side of the containment liner •methods capable of identification of corrosion occurrence on the concrete side of the containment liner.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2015

PMU-Aided Voltage Security Assessment for a Wind Power Plant

Because wind power penetration levels in electric power systems are continuously increasing, voltage stability is a critical issue for maintaining power system security and operation. The traditional methods to analyze voltage stability can be classified into two categories: dynamic and steady-state. Dynamic analysis relies on time-domain simulations of faults at different locations; however, this method needs to exhaust faults at all locations to find the security region for voltage at a single bus. With the widely located phasor measurement units (PMUs), the Thevenin equivalent matrix can be calculated by the voltage and current information collected by the PMUs. This paper proposes a method based on a Thevenin equivalent matrix to identify system locations that will have the greatest impact on the voltage at the wind power plant's point of interconnection. The number of dynamic voltage stability analysis runs is greatly reduced by using the proposed method. The numerical results demonstrate the feasibility, effectiveness, and robustness of the proposed approach for voltage security assessment for a wind power plant.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Data for A Fluorescence-Based Transient Expression Assay for the Analysis of Upstream Open Reading Frames in Plants

Scripts for the manuscript "A fluorescence-based transient expression assay for the analysis of upstream open reading frames in plant" by Haas et al. Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are regulatory elements present in the 5′ leaders of mRNA that can significantly impact downstream gene expression in eukaryotes. In crop engineering, editing of uORFs can provide an avenue to upregulate expression of native genes without the need to add persistent transgenic copies. Even with genome- wide methods to identify translated uORFs such as ribosome profiling, their functional characterization depends on validation through reporter gene assays and mutagenesis studies. Current screening methods for plants use luciferases or protoplasts to measure differential gene expression between wild- type and mutated transcript leaders, which requires tissue processing and/or substrate addition. Here, we present a time- and cost- efficient alternative to investigate transcript leaders by co- expression of two fluorescent proteins in Nicotiana benthamiana leaf tissue and test our assay on genes involved in photoprotection, editing of which could provide a pathway to increase CO2 assimilation during sun–shade transitions.

Gene Editing↗
DOE OSTI2019

NGEE Arctic Plant Traits: Plant Aboveground Biomass, NPP and Traits, Kougarok Road Mile Marker 64, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, beginning 2016

Aboveground biomass was determined in twelve plots at the Kougarok hillslope site Kougarok Road, Mile Marker 64 (KG_MM64), Seward Peninsula, Alaska, from samples collected in late July of 2016. The sampled plots were located across six ecotypes present at this site (n=2 replicates per ecotype). Methods employed included destructive harvests to sample understory species (Understory Clip plots) and shrub surveys combined with existing allometric relationships to determine the aboveground biomass of tall shrub species (Shrub Clip Plots). Current year leaves and stems were separated to quantify net primary production of leaves and stems. This data package contains two CSV data files, one pdf and one zip file.The October 2020 update (*.v3) now provides of aboveground biomass and net primary production data (NPP) by plant species and tissue type. The initial release (*.v2) reported just aboveground biomass by plant functional type. Both versions are provided.Foliar specific leaf area, %C, %N, %P, d15N and d13C were measured on an array of vascular plant leaves collected at the Kougarok hillslope site starting in 2016. Leaves were collected during various plant harvests, including understory clip plots, shrub clip plots, nodule biomass plots, N fixation rate measurements and alder point-center-quarter transects. Paired observations from these harvests are also available through the NGEE Arctic data catalogue (see supplemental files).This October 2020 update (*v3) only removed the Ecotype column. No data were changed from initial release (*v2). Both versions are provided.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a 10-year research effort (2012-2022) to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗