DOE Joint Genome Institute

All JGI Features
Home › Items tagged with: enzyme

Content Tagged "enzyme"

Thermophilic fungi in energyNOW!

Next-generation biofuel refining is based on tweaking enzymes to break down plant walls and convert biomass to fermentable sugars. The research has two main goals. One is to find ways to cut down the energy input needed for biofuel processing.  Read more on energyNOW! [Read More]

High-temperature enzymes for biomass breakdown

To overcome the challenge of breaking down cellulosic biomass for commercial biofuel production, which involves the application of high temperatures, a team of researchers including DOE JGI’s Martin Allgaier, now at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany, and Phil Hugenholtz, now director of the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics at the University… [Read More]

Ethanol Contaminant Could Assist Production Efficiency

An Ethanol plant in Bairstown, Iowa (Courtesy of USDA) In the August edition of The Journal of Bacteriology, researchers led by long-time collaborator David Mills of the University of California Davis, and including DOE JGI’s Alex Copeland, Olga Chertkov and Lynne Goodwin, announced the completed genome sequence of Lactobacillus buchneri and has now been made… [Read More]

Serpula genome project on MyCor Fungal Web Genomics

The other good news of this Bastille Day: our paper on the Serpula lacrymans genome is reported online July 14 in Science Express. The Domestic Dry Rot (Serpula lacrymans, Basidiomycete, Coniophoraceae) comprises two subgroups, S. lacrymans varshastensis, found in montane conifer forests in the Himalayan foothills, and S. lacrymans var lacrymans, cause of building dry rot, which diverged in historic time [Kauserud et al. (2007) Mol. Ecol.16: 3350-3360].  Read… [Read More]

DOE JGI/JBEI collaboration in Green Car Congress

Such salt-tolerant enzymes, particularly cellulases, offer significant advantages for industrial utility over conventional enzymes, they said. The group plans to expand this research to develop a full complement of enzymes that is tailored for the ionic liquid process technology with the goal of demonstrating a complete biomass-to-sugar process, one they hope can enable the commercial… [Read More]

A.niger genome project on The Bioenergy Site

Published online ahead of print May 4, 2011 in Genome Research, a team led by Scott Baker of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory compared the genome sequences of two Aspergillus niger strains to, among other things, better harness its industrial potential in biofuels applications. As more than a million tons of citric acid are produced annually, the production… [Read More]

Fungal lessons for large-scale “green” chemical production

The chemical compound citric acid has been produced on a large-scale basis for decades with the help of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger. The fungus also has enzymes that can be used to help break down plant cell walls for biofuel production, and it plays a key role in the carbon cycle. Aspergillus niger (Sue… [Read More]

First analysis of Trichoderma species as biocontrol agents

Trichodermaatroviride and T. virens are filamentous fungi commonly found in the soil and are good at protecting crops such as beans, tomatoes, strawberries and cotton against a range of fungal pathogens. Their ability to do so could offer bioenergy crop growers an alternative to chemical pesticide treatment. Both were selected for sequencing by the DOE… [Read More]

Finding cellulases in sediment from a paper mill

During the DOE JGI User Meeting held in Walnut Creek, Calif. from March 22-24, 2011, collaborator Daniel Distel noted that more than 20 enzymes are needed to break down cellulose. To assist in identifying novel cellulose degraders and thus improve cellulosic biofuel production processes, a team of DOE JGI researchers including Microbial Program head TanjaWoyke… [Read More]

Cow rumen metagenome study in EarthSky

Enter: the cow. If cows are good at anything, it’s digesting plant material until it turns into sugar; Dr. Rubin noted that cows have been eating grass for a few million years. That’s why Rubin’s team decided to do major genetic analysis of microbes inside the stomachs of cows. He explained that he was interested… [Read More]