Helping Bacteria Tolerate Biofuels
by Erika Gebel Berg (Chemical and Engineering News) Protein Engineering: Scientists evolve a bacterial protein pump that pulls butanol out of cells to make microbes into better biofuel factories
Biologists can engineer microorganisms to make biofuels, such as butanol or octanol, but the cells can’t produce the fuels at industrial scales. One problem is the fuel molecules are toxic to the microbes, killing the organisms before they can produce a high yield. Now, to improve the microbes’ efficiencies, researchers have developed bacteria that expel butanol with a mutant protein pump, helping the microbes to divide faster while swimming among the fuel molecules (ACS Synth. Biol.2013, DOI: 10.1021/sb400065q). READ MORE Abstract