Researchers use light to boost biofuel production from yeast

In New Jersey, researchers at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment use light to enhance the production of biofuels, drugs and commercial chemicals in bioreactors, which contain microorganisms such as yeast that have been metabolically engineered to make biological products. The team uses a technology called optogenetics—involving light to control cellular processes—to turn yeast genes on and off at specific times to optimize the production of the desired chemical or product.

Light played a key role in the experiment because it allowed the researchers to switch on genes that they had added to the yeast cells. These particular genes are sensitive to light, which can trigger or suppress their activity. In one case, turning on and off a blue light caused the special yeast to alternate between producing ethanol, a product of normal fermentation, and isobutanol, a chemical that normally would kill yeast at sufficiently high concentration.

The achievement of producing these chemicals was significant, but the researchers were intrigued by the development of light’s broader role in metabolic research.