Teaching a microbe to make fuel
Monday, August 20, 2012 - 12:50
in Biology & Nature
A humble soil bacterium called Ralstonia eutropha has a natural tendency, whenever it is stressed, to stop growing and put all its energy into making complex carbon compounds. Now scientists at MIT have taught this microbe a new trick: They've tinkered with its genes to persuade it to make fuel specifically, a kind of alcohol called isobutanol that can be directly substituted for, or blended with, gasoline.