News Section | Genomics
A new strain of yeast turns seaweed into biofuel in half the time
A new strain of yeast engineered by the University of Illinois scientists converts seaweed into biofuel in half the time it took just months ago.
“That’s a process that’s important outside the Corn Belt,” said Yong-Su Jin, a University of Illinois assistant professor of microbial genomics and a faculty member in its Institute for Genomic Biology.
“The key is the strain’s ability to ferment cellobiose and galactose simultaneously, which makes the process much more efficient,” he said.
Red seaweed, hydrolyzed for its fermentable sugars, yields glucose and galactose. But yeast prefers glucose and won’t consume galactose until glucose is gone, which adds considerable time to the process, he said.
The new procedure hydrolyzes cellulose into cellobiose, a dimeric form of glucose, then exploits a newly engineered strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae capable of fermenting cellobiose and galactose simultaneously.
The team introduced a new sugar transporter and enzyme that breaks down cellobiose at the intracellular level.
The result is a yeast that consumes cellobiose and galactose in equal amounts at the same time, cutting the production time of biofuel from marine biomass in half, he said.
“It’s a faster, superior process. Our view is that this discovery greatly enhances the economic viability of marine biofuels and gives us a better product,” Jin added.
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