Bacteria Transformed into Biofuel Refineries
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 - 15:21
in Biology & Nature
The bacteria responsible for most cases of food poisoning in the U.S. has been turned into an efficient biological factory to make chemicals , medicines and, now, fuels. Chemical engineer Jay Keasling of the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues have manipulated the genetic code of Escherichia coli , a common gut bacteria, so that it can chew up plant-derived sugar to produce diesel and other hydrocarbons, according to results published in the January 28 issue of Nature . ( Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) [More]