Better sugar-munchers discovered for biofuels improvement

In Wisconsin, a Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center team has found new genes that improve yeast’s ability to process xylose.  The team inserted genes into S. cerevisiae and found that one particular gene, CtAKR increased xylose consumption.  As xylose can be nearly half the sugar available in a plant, any increase in yeast’s ability to consume xylose will improve the efficiency of producing biofuels from biomass.