Department of Agronomy, University of Wisconsin, 1575 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
Biotechnol Biofuels. 2012 May 1;5(1):27. doi: 10.1186/1754-6834-5-27.
A major challenge in the identification and development of superior feedstocks for the production of second generation biofuels is the rapid assessment of biomass composition in a large number of samples. Currently, highly accurate and precise robotic analysis systems are available for the evaluation of biomass composition, on a large number of samples, with a variety of pretreatments. However, the lack of an inexpensive and high-throughput process for large scale sampling of biomass resources is still an important limiting factor. Our goal was to develop a simple mechanical maize stalk core sampling device that can be utilized to collect uniform samples of a dimension compatible with robotic processing and analysis, while allowing the collection of hundreds to thousands of samples per day.
We have developed a core sampling device (CSD) to collect maize stalk samples compatible with robotic processing and analysis. The CSD facilitates the collection of thousands of uniform tissue cores consistent with high-throughput analysis required for breeding, genetics, and production studies. With a single CSD operated by one person with minimal training, more than 1,000 biomass samples were obtained in an eight-hour period. One of the main advantages of using cores is the high level of homogeneity of the samples obtained and the minimal opportunity for sample contamination. In addition, the samples obtained with the CSD can be placed directly into a bath of ice, dry ice, or liquid nitrogen maintaining the composition of the biomass sample for relatively long periods of time.
The CSD has been demonstrated to successfully produce homogeneous stalk core samples in a repeatable manner with a throughput substantially superior to the currently available sampling methods. Given the variety of maize developmental stages and the diversity of stalk diameter evaluated, it is expected that the CSD will have utility for other bioenergy crops as well.
在鉴定和开发用于生产第二代生物燃料的优质原料方面，一个主要挑战是快速评估大量样品的生物质组成。目前，有高度精确和精密的机器人分析系统可用于评估生物质组成，适用于各种预处理的大量样品。然而，缺乏一种廉价且高通量的大规模采样生物质资源的过程仍然是一个重要的限制因素。我们的目标是开发一种简单的机械玉米秸秆核心采样装置，该装置可以收集与机器人处理和分析兼容的均匀样本，同时允许每天收集数百到数千个样本。
我们开发了一种核心采样装置（CSD），用于收集与机器人处理和分析兼容的玉米秸秆样本。CSD 方便了数千个一致的组织核心的收集，这些核心与用于育种、遗传学和生产研究的高通量分析要求一致。使用一个由一个人操作的 CSD，经过最少的培训，在 8 小时内可以获得超过 1000 个生物质样本。使用核心的主要优点之一是获得的样本高度均匀，样本污染的机会最小。此外，用 CSD 获得的样品可以直接放入冰浴、干冰或液氮中，使生物质样品的组成在相对较长的时间内保持不变。
CSD 已被证明能够以可重复的方式成功生产均匀的秸秆核心样本，其通量大大优于目前可用的采样方法。鉴于玉米发育阶段的多样性和评估的秸秆直径的多样性，预计 CSD 将对其他生物能源作物也具有实用性。
