Using Mother Nature as their teacher, researchers at the U.S. DOE’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, along with the DOE’s Joint Genome Institute, have sequenced the genomes of two types of yeasts found in bark beetles and then compared and contrasted the results with other yeasts’ genome sequences to determine which can best convert the elusive C5 sugars of cellulosic material to ethanol. What they found surprised and encouraged them, and left them with more than enough work to fill the next several years.
Read more in Ethanol Producer magazine