BACKGROUND In the bioconversion of lignocellulosic substrates, the adsorption behavior of cellulase onto lignin has a negative effect on enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose, decreasing glucose production during enzymatic hydrolysis, thus decreasing the yield of fermentation and the production of useful products. Understanding the interaction between lignin and cellulase is necessary to optimize t...

(Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench) on in vitro starch digestibility and α-amylase activity Authors: N.L. Mkandawire, R.C. Kaufman, S.R. Bean, C.L. Weller, D.S. Jackson, D.J. Rose Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry Recently, the effects of sorghum tannins on starch digestibility in humans have been of interest, since tanins may inhibit starch digestion and contribute to reducing g...

Correspondence among QTLs affecting height and/or flowering was investigated across the five races of sorghum, an interspecific sorghum F2 population, and 32 previously published sorghum, maize, rice, wheat, and barley populations revealing 185 QTLs or discrete mutants. Among nine QTLs mapped in the interspecific sorghum population (six affecting height and three affecting flowering), at least ...

Physical mapping of BACs by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to analyze the liguleless (lg-1) linkage group in sorghum and compare it to the conserved region in rice and maize. Six liguleless-associated rice restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers were used to select 16 homeologous sorghum BACs, which were in turn used to physically map the liguleless linkage gr...

BACKGROUND Sorghum types suitable for brewing and bioethanol production are required. The effect of sorghum type (white non-tannin versus white type II tannin) on free amino nitrogen (FAN) production from sorghum grain and malt using exogenous protease enzymes was investigated over extended incubation at moderate temperature (45 °C). RESULTS With grain in the absence of exogenous proteases, w...

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) pericarp pigments can affect grain quality. Pigments found in vegetative parts of the plant and in the peduncle and glumes of flowers (12,44) also may indirectly impact sorghum grain quality. Pigments associated with the “purple wound response” accumulate following mechanical injury, insect feeding, or pathogen invasion (22,31). Grain with nonpigmented peri...

Corn stover has potential as a bioenergy feedstock in North America. We simulated production costs for stover harvest (three-pass and two-pass with baling or chopping, and single-pass with baling or chopping) and on-farm storage (outdoor and indoor bales, outdoor wrapped bales, and chopped stover in bags, bunks, or piles). For threeand two-pass harvest, chopping was 33e45% more expensive than b...

BACKGROUND Pretreatment is essential to realize high product yields from biological conversion of naturally recalcitrant cellulosic biomass, with thermochemical pretreatments often favored for cost and performance. In this study, enzymatic digestion of solids from dilute sulfuric acid (DA), ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX™), and ionic liquid (IL) thermochemical pretreatments of corn stover were f...