Recent genetics Ph.D. graduate Ben Hall and colleagues engineered a bacteria that can produce two chemical products simultaneously from underutilized plant fiber – without any loss in efficiency.
The study, published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, explains the environmental and economic benefits of the discovery. “The amount of energy and greenhouse gas that you need to make two products in one pot is going to be less than running two pots to make one product in each pot,” illustrates Tim Donohue, UW–Madison professor of bacteriology and director of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. “To my knowledge, it’s one of the first times you can make two valuable products simultaneously in one microbe.”
Read more about the discovery and the research behind it at https://news.wisc.edu/multitasking-microbes-uw-madison-scientists-engineer-bacteria-to-make-two-valuable-products-from-plant-fiber/.