As spring warms up Wisconsin, humans aren't the only ones tending their gardens. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Bacteriology, colonies of leaf-cutter ants cultivate thriving communities of fungi and ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 14, 2013
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(Phys.org) —Changing the way a plant forms cellulose may lead to more efficient, less expensive biofuel production, according to Penn State engineers.
Biotechnology
Apr 26, 2013
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Stepping into unexplored territory in efforts to use corn stalks, grass and other non-food plants to make biofuels, scientists today described the discovery of a potential treasure-trove of candidate enzymes in fungi thriving ...
Biotechnology
Apr 11, 2013
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New protein probes are now helping scientists find the best biomass-to-biofuel production enzymes that nature has to offer. Turning biomass into biofuel hinges on the breakdown of the energy-rich primary component of plant ...
Biotechnology
Feb 6, 2013
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Scientists studying an enzyme that naturally produces alkanes—long carbon-chain molecules that could be a direct replacement for the hydrocarbons in gasoline—have figured out why the natural reaction typically stops after ...
Biochemistry
Feb 4, 2013
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The DISCO project coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed powerful enzymes, which accelerate plant biomass conversion into sugars and further into products such as bioethanol. The project's results ...
Biotechnology
Jan 8, 2013
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Best known for its ability to transform simmering pots of sugared fruit into marmalades and jams, pectin is a major constituent of plant cell walls and the middle lamella, the sticky layer that glues neighboring plant cells ...
Biotechnology
Dec 20, 2012
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One reason that biofuels are expensive to make is that the organisms used to ferment the biomass cannot make effective use of hemicellulose, the next most abundant cell wall component after cellulose. They convert only the ...
Biochemistry
Nov 29, 2012
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(Phys.org)—Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) combined different microscopic imaging methods to gain a greater understanding ...
Biotechnology
Nov 27, 2012
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The molecular mechanisms whereby a spectrum of dahlias, from white to yellow to red to purple, get their colour are already well known, but the black dahlia has hitherto remained a mystery. Now, a study published in BioMed ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 22, 2012
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