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Anyone who’s ever had a termite problem knows that the pests can eat up walls fairly quickly. Their secret is a type of gut bacteria that turns wood into digestible sugar. Now researchers have moved closer to harnessing these unique microbes to help fuel much bigger things, like cars. Thus far, significant amounts of alternative fuels like ethanol have been made from a limited number of crops, such as corn. Even then, only the kernels are used since the cob, stalk and leaves contain cellulose, a complex molecule that needs to be broken down into sugar down before conversion.
The microbes may solve this problem since they unleash special enzymes that break down cellulose and other rugged compounds. This possibility is being explored at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute, where scientists have isolated two microbes that release the wood-degrading enzymes.
