Modified yeast could lead to more efficient, economical biofuel production
August 20th, 2010 - 3:50 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Aug 20 (ANI): A University of Illinois metabolic engineer has identified a strain of yeast with increased alcohol tolerance that could lead to more efficient and economical production of biofuels.
Biofuels are produced through microbial fermentation of biomass crops, which yield the alcohol-based fuels ethanol and iso-butanol if yeast is used as the microbe to convert sugars from biomass into biofuels.
“However, at a certain concentration, the biofuels that are being created become toxic to the yeast used in making them. Our goal was to find a gene or genes that reduce this toxic effect,” said Yong-Su Jin.
Jin identified four genes (MSN2, DOG1, HAL1, and INO1) that improve tolerance to ethanol and iso-butanol when they are overexpressed.
Overexpression of any of the four genes remarkably increased ethanol tolerance, but the strain in which INO1 was overexpressed showed an increase more than 70 percent for ethanol volume and more than 340 percent for ethanol tolerance.
Further study of these genes should increase alcohol tolerance even further, and that will translate into cost savings and greater efficiency during biofuel production, Jin added. (ANI)
- New yeast strain 'cuts major drawbacks of biofuel production methods' - Dec 28, 2010
- Bioengineers develop bacterial strain to hike ethanol biofuel production - Dec 10, 2010
- Scientists achieve breakthrough in bioethanol production from agricultural waste - Nov 22, 2009
- Scientists boost production of biofuel that could replace gasoline - Aug 20, 2009
- Indian-origin scientist unveils new, efficient technique of biofuel production - Jul 01, 2010
- Engineered bacteria to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel - Dec 11, 2009
- Scientists conjure fuel out of carbon emissions - Dec 11, 2009
- Faster-growing E. coli strain may benefit human health - Nov 12, 2010
- Producing better wine by taking the stress off yeast - Sep 09, 2009
- Scientists develop microbe that produces fuels directly from biomass - Jan 28, 2010
- New method uses electrolyzed water for more efficient fuel production - Jul 28, 2009
- Saudi Muslim scholar says running cars on bio-fuels could be sinful - Feb 22, 2009
- Tobacco plant leaves can be used to make efficient biofuel - Dec 31, 2009
- Gene discovery could lead to healthier food, better biofuel production - Nov 23, 2010
- Now, cheap, efficient method to convert algae into renewable fuel - Mar 06, 2011
Tags: alcohol tolerance, biofuel production, biomass crops, butanol, concentration, economical production, efficiency, engineer, ethanol, further study, genes, microbe, microbial fermentation, overexpression, sugars, toxic effect, university of illinois, yeast