Japanese researchers gain insights into marine algae for biofuel feedstock

In Japan, researchers from Hokkaido University have unpicked the mechanism behind a marine feeding strategy that could provide a valuable renewable source of biofuel.

Their research has been published as a Reviewed Preprint in eLife, with the revised version appearing today. It is described by the editors as an important study providing convincing evidence on how the sea slug Aplysia kurodai optimizes its digestion of brown algae, in a classical predator-prey ‘arms race’ at the molecular level. The authors’ findings are supported by experimental protein structures and enzyme assays and hold promise for biotechnological applications in biofuel production.