Home › Botany › Transcript and Metabolite Profiling for the Evaluation of Tobacco Tree and Poplar as Feedstock for the Bio-based Industry
Botany JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

Transcript and Metabolite Profiling for the Evaluation of Tobacco Tree and Poplar as Feedstock for the Bio-based Industry

DOI: 10.3791/51393-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Perform metabolite extraction and GC-MS profiling of plant tissues
  • ✓ Execute RNA extraction protocols for transcript sequencing analysis
  • ✓ Evaluate biomass feedstock suitability using multi-omics data
  • ✓ Compare metabolite and transcript profiles across plant species
Protocol

Plant biomass offers a renewable resource for multiple products, including fuel, feed, food, and a variety of materials. In this paper we investigate the properties of tobacco tree (Nicotiana glauca) and poplar as suitable sources for a biorefinery pipeline.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~3–5 days (including RNA-seq library prep and GC-MS analysis)
Model organism
Nicotiana glauca, Populus species
Biosafety
BSL-1

Steps

1
Extract metabolites for GC-MS profiling

Perform solvent extraction of plant tissue to isolate primary metabolites suitable for gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis. This yields quantitative data on carbohydrates, organic acids, and other primary metabolites.

▶ 01:49
2
Extract hydrocarbons from plant biomass

Isolate and quantify hydrocarbon fractions from tobacco tree and poplar tissue using appropriate solvent extraction methods. This characterizes energy-dense compounds relevant to biofuel applications.

▶ 04:58
3
Extract RNA for transcript sequencing

Isolate high-quality total RNA from plant tissue using standard extraction protocols optimized for transcriptomic analysis. Extracted RNA is quantified and prepared for RNA-seq library construction.

▶ 06:19
4
Analyze and compare profiling results

Interpret GC-MS metabolite data and RNA-seq transcript profiles to evaluate feedstock suitability. Compare metabolic signatures and gene expression between tobacco tree and poplar.

▶ 08:50
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