Researchers Getting Genetic Help for Biofuel Production

(Agricultural Research Service, USDA)

Researchers from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and Cargill are examining genetic materials from a cow’s digestive system to help break down plant fibers for conversion into biofuel.

To convert corn stover and switchgrass into biofuel, the plant fibers must first be broken down into sugars. But cell wall polymers are cross-linked in various ways that make them very resistant to breaking down, according to Dominic Wong, a chemist for the Agricultural Research Service in Albany, California. Previous studies have shown that enzymes known as feruloyl esterases (FAEs) are capable of breaking apart key links between the polymers, and that the enzymes are produced by certain types of microbes that degrade plant materials. Wong collected the microbial population cows, and screened their genetic compositions to find genes that produce FAE enzymes.

Working with colleagues at Cargill, a maker of food and agricultural products, Wong has isolated, sequenced ,and cloned 12 genes capable of being introduced into Escherichia coli bacteria for production of the enzymes, which can then be used to break loose the polymeric network in the plant cell wall. Wong and the Cargill team have filed a provisional patent application on the FAE genes and enzymes.