(((Why not import this capacity into OUR OWN guts?
Then we could just eat straw!)))
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring2007/fiction-a-plain-tale-from-our-hills-by-bruce-sterling/
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/spring2007/fiction-a-plain-tale-from-our-hills-by-bruce-sterling/
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/19745/?nlid=688
Link: Technology Review: Termite Guts Could Boost Ethanol Efficiency.
"Cellulose is a fibrous complex carbohydrate that makes up plant cell walls. Biofuels made from cellulosic biomass, including cornstalks, woodchips, perennial grasses, and weeds such as switchgrass, could provide an alternative to corn-derived ethanol, which requires a large amount of energy to produce.
"However, breaking down cellulose into simple sugars that can be fermented into ethanol is currently a complex, inefficient, and expensive process. Scientists are searching for new enzymes that can more efficiently break down the hardy molecule and allow the production process to compete with corn-based ethanol.
"In the new study, Jared Leadbetter, a microbiologist at Caltech, and his colleagues collected Nasutitermes termites from Costa Rica and isolated DNA from the microbial contents of part of their digestive tract. Scientists had previously theorized that these termites' wood-digesting powers come primarily from the microbes that live in their gut. Using a metagenomics approach (see Metagenomics Defined), researchers sequenced and analyzed the genomic material from many different types of bacteria, searching for particular sequences known from other studies to be linked to the ability to break down cellulose. They identified nearly 1,000 candidate genes for glycohydrolases–enzymes that break down complex plant carbohydrates, such as cellulose.
"Leadbetter and others will use the findings to figure out how termites, which derive virtually all their nutrients from wood, break down the material so efficiently. "Termites have been turning wood into their own biofuel for 200 million years," says Leadbetter.
"How does the system dismantle and degrade wood? If there's any hope of engineering a system to make products we want, we need a better understanding of the system and take the best components for what we want to do."...
