Agrivida Teaches Biofuel Crops to Self-Destruct

by Martin LaMonica (CNET) ... Agrivida is using genetic engineering and other techniques from the biotech industry to create proteins with specific traits designed for rapid, and cheaper, biofuel production from sorghum, switchgrass, and corn stover, the residual material from corn harvesting.
Company scientists are identifying proteins, or enzymes, that rapidly break down cellulose, the compound in cell walls that gives plants structure. Those enzymes are then inserted inside plants. After the transgenic plants are harvested, the enzymes are "switched on" and begin breaking down the crop's cell walls faster than traditional biofuel methods.
The end goal, as is with many biofuels processes, is to make sugars that can be fermented into ethanol or turned into different products, such as specialty chemicals, through existing methods.
"We've tested 600,000 enzymes this year and over 2 million since we started," said Agrivida CEO Mark Wong during the tour.
...Agrivida is planning to deliver three "plant expressed" enzymes for corn this fall and have them tested with its seed partners by the end of the year. It would take a few years for USDA approval and the earliest it would reach the market is four to six years, Wong said. READ MORE and MORE (US Department of Energy) and MORE (Biofuels Digest) and MORE (Xconomy)