A new yeast gene that can increase the production yield of ethanol fuel has been discovered by iDiverse, a biotechnology company that develops genetically enhanced cell lines for bioproduction of pharmaceuticals, industrial enzymes, and fuel ethanol.
The yeast gene has the ability to increase production by up to 34%, when it is inserted into yeast and then modulated appropriately.
iDiverse’s Chief Business Officer, John Serbin, stated that dangerous stresses occur in bioproduction processes. The newly discovered yeast gene helps protect the yeast against such stresses. When fuel ethanol is manufactured from sugarcane or corn, they lead to severe conditions where low pH and high acetic acid concentrations exist. When lignocellulosic biomass is used as the feedstock for fermentation processes, the conditions are even more severe. The novel yeast is able to produce more ethanol even under these severe conditions.
The President and CEO of iDiverse, John Burr stated that if the novel yeast technology is found effective on a large-scale then it may help increase the fuel yield derived from sugarcane and corn feed stocks, and also increase the production efficiency of fuel ethanol plants. It may also aid in improving the production output of cellulosic biomass technologies. The novel technology may also benefit other biomanufacturing cell types including algal, fungal, insect and CHO cells.
Source: iDiverse, Inc.
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