Gut of Costa Rican
Termites Holds Key to
Improve Biofuel Process
A group of scientists
backed by the U.S.
Department of Energy
(DOE) has discovered a
rich source of enzymes
in the guts of tiny
termites that will
improve the conversion
of wood or waste biomass
into biofuels.
The research was
conducted on contents
drawn from the hindguts
of larger "worker ants"
with bulbous heads and
inflated bellies, found
in the rain forest of
Costa Rica.
The scientists drew 165
specimens of microbes
from the third paunch or
hindgut of the insect,
which were sent on ice
to Verenium Corp. for
DNA extraction and
preparation, then on to
the U.S. DOE Joint
Genome Institute (JGI)
for sequencing.
The analysis shows the
termite's hindgut is
dominated by two major
types of bacteria,
fibrobacters and
treponemes, which work
on breaking down wood
into sugar. The
fibrobacter is a
relative to a type of
bacteria found in the
cow's digestive system,
which is capable of
degrading cellulose. The
second bacterium
species, Treponemes, is
found to be a specialist
in sugar fermentation.
The research represents
one step in the effort
to commercialize the
process for large scale
biofuel production. U.S.
DOE JGI Director, Eddy
Rubin said, "Termites
can efficiently convert
milligrams of
lignocellulose into
fermentable sugars in
their tiny bioreactor
hindguts. Scaling up
this process so that
biomass factories can
produce biofuels more
efficiently and
economically is another
story. To get there, we
must define the set of
genes with key
functional attributes
for the breakdown of
cellulose, and this
study represents an
essential step along
that path."
The results of the study
are highlighted in the
Nov. 22 edition of the
journal Nature.
The study is a joint
research effort by the
U.S. DOE JGI, the
California Institute of
Technology, Verenium
Corp., biofuel company
INBio, the National
Biodiversity Institute
of Costa Rica and the
IBM Thomas J. Watson
Research Center. It is
part of the U.S. DOE
thrust to accelerate
basic research in the
development of
cellulosic ethanol and
other fuels.
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