Ashley Returns to Madison

This week, Ashley traveled to her alma mater- the University of Wisconsin-Madison - to sample the microbiome of some very special Poplar trees. These trees are part of a trial by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center to test the performance of the new “zip-lignin” varieties in the field as compared to regular “wild type” trees. The trees have a modified lignin so that they can be more easily converted into biofuels and byproducts. The ShadeLab wants to understand if and how the modified lignin influences the diversity of their associated microbiomes. Stay tuned!