Content Tagged "Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center"

March 15, 2013

Bacterial sequence to help understand ant fungal gardens

Leaf-cutter ant colonies are comprised of millions of ants harvesting hundreds of kilos of leaves annually for use in growing their primary food source, a fungus. The fungal gardens tended by these ants allow them to convert plant biomass on a very large scale. Bioenergy researchers are looking at the microbial composition of the fungal… [Read More]

June 22, 2012

Some Enzymes Like it Hot

It sounds like a dream vacation: hang out in hot springs all day, converting sugar to alcohol. But that’s precisely what researchers are looking for in microbes to more efficiently break down plant matter into fermentable sugars for biofuel. And they found it in Dictyoglomus turgidum, in samples from Obsidian Hot Spring in Yellowstone National… [Read More]

July 15, 2011

Dry rot (Serpula) genome project on WalesOnline

WELSH scientists are looking at harnessing the power of the virulent fungus which causes dry rot to help make biofuels of the future. Closer examination of the damaging fungus Serpula lacrymans as part of an international project led by Swansea University could also hold the key to protecting buildings from dry rot. Read more at… [Read More]

June 26, 2009

JGI collaborator Cameron Currie receives sequencing grant

Nestled within the twisting fungus gardens of leaf-cutter ants exists a complex symbiotic web that has evolved over millions of years. Now, with the help of a major genomic sequencing grant from Roche Applied Science, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be able to analyze these interactions at the molecular scale…. As winners of… [Read More]