Northeastern says shipworms could be key to cellulosic biofuels

In Massachusetts, international research team led by Dan Distel, director of the Ocean Genome Legacy Center of New England Biolabs at Northeastern University, has discovered a novel digestive strategy in shipworms. The breakthrough, the researchers say, may also be a game-​​changer for the industrial production of clean biofuels.

To start, it’s important to note that shipworms, the so-​​called “termites of the sea,” aren’t actually worms—they’re bizarre clams that look like worms. Similar to termites, they use enzymes made by bacteria to aid in the break down wood for nutrition. But the researchers found that the enzymes shipworms use to break down wood don’t originate in gut bacteria; in fact, they’re far removed from it, instead the enzymes are made by symbiotic bacteria stored inside specialized cells in their the gills and then transported to the gut.