UC Santa Barbara researchers lead the way on identifying fungi that can boost cellulosic ethanol efficiency

In California, bioenergy researchers are looking to nature and the estimated 1.5 million species of fungi that, collectively, can break down almost any substance on earth, including plant biomass.

As reported May 26, 2017 in Nature Microbiology, a team led by researchers at the University of California (UC), Santa Barbara has found for the first time that early lineages of fungi can form complexes of enzymes capable of degrading plant biomass. By consolidating these enzymes, in effect into protein assembly lines, they can team up to work more efficiently than they would as individuals. The work was enabled by harnessing the capabilities of two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facilities: the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab); and, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).