Oak Ridge team overcomes key genetic barrier to accessing cellulosic sugars
The z. mobilis bacterium
In Tennessee, researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Bioenergy Research Center, publishing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, announced that they have identified a Z. mobilis gene vital to the improvement of cellulosic biofuel “recalcitrance,” or the resistance caused by biomass’ defense mechanisms to the work of enzymes in converting biomass to ethanol.
According to the research team, current pretreatment technologies, necessary to accessing plant sugars within cell walls, create inhibitors, such as acetate, which slow down microorganisms such as Z. mobilis in fermenting sugars into ethanol.
The researchers developed a strain of Z. mobilis which becomes acetate-tolerant when gene nhaA is over-expressed — and also found that the mutant gene created a similar impact when it was inserted into yeast.
ORNL team is presently examining the impact on other microorganisms.
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Category: Research
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[...] and work in overcoming (plant) recalcitrance, try our look at Oak Ridge’s work on the genetic structure of Z.mobilis, or work by the Samuel Roberts Noble foundation, Georgia Tech and ORNL on switchgrass, , or [...]