When the villain becomes your friend: The strange tale of muscle lactate
... fermentation chemists realized that juice left to ferment without adequate oxygen resulted in acid products. Then, in the early 20th century, when physiologists stimulated isolated frog muscles to contract until exhaustion, they found that the tissues had accumulated high amounts of lactic acid. Since then,...Chemists create healthier pizza by boosting antioxidants in dough
...ed carefully. As pizza dough is often allowed to ferment before baking, Moore tested the effect of different fermentation times, ranging from zero to 48 hours, on antioxidant properties. Longer fermentation times also boosted antioxidant levels, in some cases by as much as 100 percent, he says. The increas...DOE JGI releases enhanced Genome Data Management System IMG 2.1 marking 2-year anniversary
...kdown of cellulose to sugars that, in turn, can be ferment into ethanol and other biofuels. "We continue to expand IMGs functionality in response to the demand in the rapidly growing microbial genomics domain," said Victor Markowitz, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Biological Data Management and Tec...Gene sequencing advance will aid in biomass-to-biofuels conversion
...tion of biofuels because the yeast can efficiently ferment xylose, a main component of plant lignocellulose. Xylose fermentation is vital to economically converting plant biomass to fuels and chemicals such as ethanol. "A better understanding of the genetic structure of this yeast allows us to determine ho...Super-fermenting fungus genome sequenced
...odder. Increasing the capacity of P. stipitis to ferment xylose and using this knowledge for improving xylose metabolism in other microbes, such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, brewers yeast, offers a strategy for improved production of cellulosic ethanol, said Eddy Rubin, DOE JGI Director. In addition, this...Genome sequencing reveals key to viable ethanol production
...arate steps to break down biomass into glucose and ferment the glucose into ethanol, as is currently done, Wu...orking on a way to make a bacterium break down and ferment plant biomass efficiently in just one step. Wu investigated C. thermocellum, which is a microorganis...Story tips from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, January 2007
...p the cell walls of plants -- into sugars and then ferment these sugars into alcohol, or ethanol. Today's production methods involve a costly, multi-step, enzyme-and-yeast-based process that would price the fuel at more than $2.20 per gallon. A group of ORNL researchers headed by Jonathan Mielenz is studying...Genomic comparison of lactic acid bacteria published
..., cocoa, and coffee are all enhanced by LAB, which ferment six-carbon sugars, or hexoses, to produce lactic acid. "DOE JGI's contribution to the whole study of lactic acid bacteria is simply immense," said David Mills, Associate Professor, Viticulture & Enology, University of California, Davis, and senior a...Glue made from ethanol-production leftovers may be worth more than the fuel itself
... it with enzymes to break it down into sugars, and ferment those sugars into ethanol. The problem with this, he explains, is that the enzymes needed to break down celluose biomass are very expensive, and they don't work nearly as effectively as the enzymes used to convert starch. In fact, Weimer adds, b...Parallel evolution: Proteins do it, too
...ive system similar to a cow's. Bacteria in the gut ferment the leaves and take up nutrients that are released in the process. The monkeys, in turn, digest the bacteria to recover the nutrients, such as protein and ribonucleic acid (RNA), a particularly important source of nitrogen in leaf eaters. Zhang focus...Research highlights how bacteria produce energy
...neered the bacterium Bacillus subtilis to directly ferment glucose sugar to ethanol with a high (86%) yield. ...a quest to develop bacteria that can breakdown and ferment cellulose biomass directly to ethanol. "Currently ethanol is produced primarily from sugarcane or c...Drunken elephants: The marula fruit myth
...it is in season. Fallen marula fruit may naturally ferment to an ethanol content of approximately 3 percent after three or four days. However, elephants have shown a clear preference for marula fruit still on the tree. Disregarding a large fruit pit, the metabolism of alcohol over time, and the unlikeliness...New marine research shows global warming may affect organic matter recycling differently
...ay at this carbon is vast, and they can hydrolyze, ferment or terminally oxidize organic compounds. "The microbes responsible for all but the final step of organic matter degradation in sediments are often ignored, and we were interested in opening the microbial 'black box' in sediments and clarifying the ......eeth, the expansion of the gut to a size needed to ferment plants, and the early stages of changing the legs so they could carry a bulky body instead of running fast after prey." The adult dinosaur walked on two legs and was about 13 feet long (4 meters) and stood 4.5 feet tall (1.4 meters). It had sharp, ...