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Biotech Offers Promise for Producing Fuel
from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)
Fuel may be a messy business now, as the oil spill fouling the gulf reminds us. But it might not always have to be. Scientists envision facilities that churn out black gold by enlisting engineered bacteria, yeast and algae to do all the dirty work.
Recently, scientists reported a significant step toward that futuristic goal: an engineered strain of the gut bacterium Escherichia coli that can make a diesel-like mixture of hydrocarbons.
The researchers, at South San Francisco-based biotech company LS9 Inc., created their biological hydrocarbon factory using genes from water-dwelling blue-green algae that naturally make tiny amounts of the fuel. They transplanted the genes into E. coli and, with a few more genetic tweaks, adjusted the bug's metabolism so it churned out 100 times more fuel than the algae did. The finding, published in the journal Science, is the company's second announcement this year of a bacterium with fuel-production abilities.
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