Protein Correlation between Plants to Aid in Biofuel Analysis

Plant produced biofuels can help alleviate the growing concern for limited fuel supply. Plants naturally produce lipids as a source of energy. These lipids can be engineered for biofuels. The goal is to identify the common proteins within plants that pertain to lipid production. We will be examining thirteen species of plants. Some of these plants are known to have proteins for lipid production. The algal species will be the main focus for protein identification. This is because they are small and can be grown in large quantities. To identify these proteins a database will be built that correlates the proteins in each of the species. Then using a matrix, the database will be organized with phenotypic data that has already been collected. This experiment aims to identify proteins essential to lipid production. Once the proteins are identified, the information gathered can be utilized to engineer biofuel production. Currently, we are matching protein sequences of the plant species to the others. More data will be collected once the proteins of each species are correlated. Once we have this data we can compare the protein sequence matches within species to phenotypic lipid production. This comparison will give us more information on which proteins are involved in lipid production. The identification of proteins that link to lipid production will guide us to an understanding of how plants produce lipids under certain circumstances. The results of this project will lead to employing plants as a natural way to embrace limited fuel supply.