Fungus may boost ethanol production

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. -- U.S. researchers say a fungus responsible for deteriorating fabric in the South Pacific during World War II could boost ethanol production.

The genome analysis of the biomass-degrading fungus Trichoderma reesei shows it has abundant source of enzymes that could be used to breakdown plant cell walls to produce biofuels, the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute and Los Alamos National Laboratory said in news release.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

"The information generated from the genome of T. reesei provides us with a roadmap for accelerating research to optimize fungal strains for reducing the current prohibitively high cost of converting lignocellulose to fermentable sugars," the Energy Department's Eddy Rubin said in a statement. "Improved industrial enzyme 'cocktails' from T. reesei and other fungi will enable more economical conversion of biomass from such feedstocks as the perennial grasses Miscanthus and switchgrass, wood from fast-growing trees like poplar, agricultural crop residues, and municipal waste, into next-generation biofuels."

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.