Research Grant for “Diesel Tree” Gene Study

http://www.unco.edu/news/spotlights.asp?ID=182 Chhandak Basu, assistant professor from the University of Northern Colorado, United States, has received a research grant to study the feasibility of using a diesel-like fuel (called “oleoresin”) from the “copaiba” or “diesel tree” as automotive fuel without further refining. The grant, amounting to about $100,000 (from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, together with matching university research funds) will be channelled to a two-year collaborative research project headed by Basu. "The agricultural/physiological aspects of oleoresin have been studied extensively, but not the molecular biology part, nor the genes responsible for this type of synthesis", said Basu. One of the targets of the research is to transform Arabidopsis plants and algae... [read full story]