Florida Researchers Believe Sweetgum Bacteria Key to Breaking Down Hemicellulose
by Stu Hutson (Southeast Farm Press) Most would identify the tree by its often troublesome, spiky “gumballs,” but what many call the sweetgum tree also goes by another name, thanks to its distinctive, reptilian bark: The alligator tree. So it may be fitting that researchers from the University of Florida, home of the Gators, have found that bacteria growing in its wood may improve the process of making the fuel that might help solve the nation’s energy crisis. …
Much of the inefficiency in cellulosic ethanol production lies in the fact that it must be given a head start by cooking the plant material with heat and acids to break down some of the components in the plant cell walls. As the team from UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences reported in the July issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a strain of the wood-decaying Paenibacillus sp. bacteria named JDR-2 has a knack for breaking down and digesting one of these components, hemicelluloses. That knack could help modify preprocessing steps for cost-effective production of ethanol. READ MORE Abstract
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