Mushroom Fuel on the Way?

New research could move Shiitake mushrooms out of your kitchen and into your gas tank.

These fungi, which some people consider a delicacy, grow on fallen logs in the forest. The mushrooms digest the wood and turn it into sugars that they use for food.

Now scientists with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service are investigating whether this technique could be used to produce fuel.

The researchers have discovered and copied the Shiitake gene, Xyn11A, which gives the mushroom the ability to produce the enzyme xylanase, which dissolves wood into sugar. Now that the researchers have isolated the gene, they are looking into whether it can be used to produce vats of the enzyme for digesting rice hulls or other harvest leftovers into sugars that could be used for making ethanol or other fuel types.