Sunday January 22, 2012
No Guts, No Glory:
Genetically Engineered Gut Bacteria Turn Seaweed Into Biofuel
Biofuels have been controversial as they have caused the prices of crops such as corn to rise.
But researchers may have found a way to turn abundant seaweed into ethanol using genetically engineered E.coli bacteria -- which could eventually be used to manufacture other substances such as plastics.
From Scientific American:
The microbe could turn out to be useful for making molecules other than ethanol, such as isobutanol or even the precursors of plastics, Yoshikuni says. "Consider the microbe as the chassis with engineered functional modules," or pathways to produce a specific molecule, Yoshikuni says. "If we integrate other pathways instead of the ethanol pathway, this microbe can be a platform for converting sugar into a variety of molecules."
Posted in: Science by bubblejam at 08:30 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
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