Making Tomorrow's Bioenergy Yeasts Strong (cellulosic ethanol)

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http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2011/110825.htm

Making Tomorrow's Bioenergy Yeasts Strong

By Marcia Wood
August 25, 2011

Cornstalks, wheat straw, and other rough, fibrous, harvest-time leftovers may soon be less expensive to convert into cellulosic ethanol, thanks to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists' studies of a promising new biorefinery yeast.

The yeast—Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain NRRL Y-50049—successfully ferments plant sugars into cellulosic ethanol despite the stressful interference by problematic compounds such as furfural (2-furaldehyde) and HMF (5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde) in fermenters, according to molecular biologist Zonglin Lewis Liu with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Liu works at ARS' National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Ill.

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Peer-reviewed articles in http://www.springer.com/chemistry/biotechnology/journal/253">Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/cell+biology/journal/438">Molecular Genetics and Genomics, and other scientific journals document the studies.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/aug11/yeasts0811.htm">Read more about this research in the August 2011 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.