Session 2B Characterizing fungal inhibitors from drought-stressed switchgrass

Development of economically viable and greener pathways to synthesize renewable energy has been an important research theme in recent years. Previously it was reported that drought experienced during the growth of switchgrass led to complete inhibition of yeast growth during fermentation. In this project, we characterized specific compounds that led to this inhibition by extracting the samples using solvents (i.e., water, ethanol, and ethyl acetate) to selectively remove potential inhibitory compounds and determining whether pretreatment affects the inhibition. A key goal of the project was to determine whether the microbial-inhibitors are plant-generated compounds, by-products of the pretreatment process, or a combination of both