Novel Biotechnology for Biofuel and Bioenergy Production and Products

Dear Colleagues,

The whole world is seeking sustainable solutions to meet its energy needs, and we have witnessed an increasing focus on shifting towards renewable energy sources to mitigate climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Biofuels and bioproducts, derived from renewable biological resources, offer a greener alternative to traditional energy sources. Furthermore, advancements in biotechnology have created new opportunities for the production of bioenergy and bioproducts. For example, the widely utilized CRISPR-Cas gene editing system has expedited research on the functions and regulations of essential genes and biological pathways across various species. Additionally, the reduced cost of DNA and RNA sequencing, proteomic analysis, and metabolomic studies, coupled with the enhanced ability to collect phenotypic data at high-throughput scale, has facilitated our understanding of biology at a multi-omics level. The incorporation of artificial intelligence has allowed researchers to develop algorithms for the rapid identification of crucial traits and the underlying biological mechanisms. These are only a few examples of significant improvements made in biotechnology in recent years. This Special Issue of Biology titled "Novel Biotechnology for Biofuel and Bioenergy Production and Products" aims to collate recent advances and insights in biotechnology from this field of research.

Submissions of original research and review manuscripts are cordially invited for this Special Issue, which aims to highlight the recent advances in basic research and novel techniques in biology that enhance the production of biofuels and bioenergy, as well as bioproducts resulting from these processes. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Application of new biotechnology to biofuel, bioenergy and bioproducts crop species, such as CRISPR-mediated gene editing.
• Multi-omics analysis, for example, genomic/transcriptomic/proteomic/metabolomic/epigenomic studies of biofuel and bioenergy species, particularly those that are underfunded and not well studied.
• Association studies, such as GWAS, TWAS, focusing on important traits about the production of biofuel, bioenergy and bioproducts.
• Identification of important genes and/or pathways contributing to biofuel and bioenergy production in major biofuel crop species.
• Research on preparing biofuel crops (e.g. soybean, sorghum, canola, camelina, etc.) for global climate change, including plant defense, abiotic stress, plant-microbe interactions, etc.
• Studies on newly domesticated biofuel bioenergy species.
• Synthetic biology engineering microorganisms (e.g. microalgae) or plants with a focus on biofuel, bioenergy or bioproducts.
• Supply chain and biofuel downstream processing, such as bio-refinery.
• The use of artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate bioenergy and bioproducts improvement, for example, genome selection for plant breeding, AI-based literature analysis to find hidden clues to important gene interactions, and drone-based high throughput phenotyping.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Xin Li
Dr. Yingyue Zeng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biology is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• biofuel
• bioenergy
• bioproduct
• biotechnology
• biorefinery
• synthetic biology
• omics
• gene editing
• AI
• microalgae