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Bug 'holds key to cleaner fuel'
09 March 2010
A marine pest could make sugars from munching woody raw material that can be fermented into fuels for vehicle engines.
Scientists think it could be the key to a biofuel breakthrough.
Gribble, which resemble pink woodlice, historically plagued seafarers by ruining the planks of ships and destroying wooden piers.
But a team of Government-funded British researchers found gribble produce enzymes which are able to break down woody cellulose and turn it into energy-rich sugars, which could make alcohol-based fuels.
Scientists investigating green fuel sources now hope gribble could hold the key to converting wood and straw into liquid biofuel.
"This may provide clues as to how this conversion could be performed in an industrial setting, said Professor Simon McQueen-Mason, who led the York team.
A genetic "fishing" technique was employed to identify DNA sequences and the proteins they code for. Small end pieces of DNA called "expressed sequence tags" were used to "hook out" genes by matching some of their component chemicals.
The team wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
Copyright © Press Association 2010
