Researcher develops technique for fermenting galactose from red seaweed, opening up commercial gateway
In Illinois, Yong-Su Jin, a University of Illinois faculty member and assistant professor of microbial genomics at the Institute For Genomic Biology has developed a strain of yeast capable of fermenting galactose from red seaweed. Jin stated, “… making biofuels from red seaweed has been problematic because the process yields both glucose and galactose, and until now galactose fermentation has been very inefficient.”
Jin and colleagues identified three genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that when overexpressed increased galactose production by 250%. One gene in particular was found to allow the yeast to consume both glucose and galactose in roughly 1/3rd the time as the control strain. Jin notes that galactose is a major sugar in marine biomass, so improved fermentation would be particularly helpful to biofuel producers using seaweed as a feedstock. Marine biomass has several strong attributes compared to land bound crops such as; higher yields per unit area, lack of lignin and cellulose structures that impede breakdown of sugars and a higher CO2 fixation.
Category: Research
