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Cow rumen metagenome study on BBC World Service: Science in Action

Growing crops to make bio-fuel is controversial – they can take up valuable land and resources that could be used for food production and in the case of oil palms, large tracts of rainforest have been cleared to make way for this cash crop. But the second generation of bio-fuels hope to make use of… [Read More]

Rumenating on improving biofuel production

Developing alternative fuels from plants has been challenging in part due to the high costs associated with processing plant biomass to more easily convert it into sugars and from there into biofuels. Ruminants such as the cow, however, can eat more than a hundred pounds of plant matter a day and break it down.  Switchgrass… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study on COSMOS Magazine

The result was 270 billion base pairs of genetic code, almost a hundred times more than the human genome, and an estimated two million potential genes to be investigated. To find which bacteria could digest cellulose, the researchers compared codes with known regions of Carbohydrate Active Enzymes called CAZymes. “Regions include domains that bind cellulose… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study on Scicasts

“The problem with second-generation biofuels is the problem of unlocking the soluble fermentable sugars that are in the plant cell wall,” said University of Illinois animal sciences professor Roderick Mackie, an author on the study whose research into the microbial life of the bovine rumen set the stage for the new approach. “The cow’s been… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study on ABC Science

In this case, the goal was to find microbes that make enzymes that can efficiently break down the toughest fibres in switchgrass, a tough crop that can be used to produce ethanol and which can grow in places where food crops do not grow well. But switchgrass is very tough to break down. Read more… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study on Times Live

They used new genetic sequencing techniques to find microbes that make enzymes that in turn can break down tough grasses into usable products. Writing in the journal Science on Thursday, they said they took samples directly from the rumen — the organ in cattle that ferments and breaks down grass. Read more on Times Live… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study in Technology Review

The first step in cellulosic biofuels is converting tough plant materials made of cellulose and lignin into sugars that can then be fermented to make fuels. But this is expensive and currently requires a large quantity of enzymes to break down cellulose. “We’re talking truckloads,” says Frances Arnold, a professor of chemical engineering at Caltech… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study on ScienceBlog

When it comes to breaking down plant matter and converting it to energy, the cow has it all figured out. Its digestive system allows it to eat more than 150 pounds of plant matter every day. Now researchers report that they have found dozens of previously unknown microbial enzymes in the bovine rumen — the… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study on Green Car Congress

Researchers have used a metagenomic analysis to discover dozens of previously unknown microbial enzymes in the bovine rumen—the cow’s primary grass-digestion chamber—that contribute to the breakdown of switchgrass, a renewable biofuel energy source. The study, reported in the current issue of the journal Science, tackles a major barrier to the development of more affordable and… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study on FavStocks

In the new study, the researchers focused on switchgrass, a promising biofuels crop. After incubating the switchgrass in the rumen for 72 hours, researchers conducted a genomic analysis of all of the microbes that adhered to switchgrass.This metagenomic approach, led by Edward Rubin, of the DOE Joint Genome Institute and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,… [Read More]