Research Highlights

Researchers at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Madison investigated a series of yeast strains with varying abilities to ferment xylose anaerobically in order to explore the underlying physiological mechanisms that enable the evolved strains to convert xylose into biofuels.

Anchoring of biosynthetic enzymes onto the lipid droplet surface results in enhanced terpenoid production and sequestration. 

Scientists at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and collaborators at several other institutions combined phylogenetic, mRNA expression, and biochemical analyses to provide compelling new evidence that eukaryotes can acquire new traits via the horizontal transfer of operons from free-living bacteria.

Researchers at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) investigated how a prolific ethanol-producing microbe, Zymomonas mobilis, regulates its synthesis of a broad class of industrially relevant molecules called isoprenoids. The work identifies several enzymes that help the microbe overcome the rate-limiting steps in the methyl erythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway.

Scientists at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center engineered Novosphingobium aromaticivorans DSM12444 to convert multiple lignin-derived aromatics into a single chemical called 2-pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid (PDC), a potential precursor for making polyester, epoxy adhesives, and other bioplastics.

GLBRC scientists have developed a process model demonstrating that engineering energy sorghum for lipid production would increase the crop’s value as a bioenergy feedstock. Technoeconomic analysis reveals that engineering the plant to produce lipid content allows for refining into biodiesel.

New research from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) unveils a genetically encoded biosensor that triggers green fluorescence in cells with high NADH levels, enabling rapid identification of the strains best primed for biofuel production.

Turning bioenergy crops into fuels and other products requires breaking down the complex mixture of polysaccharides found in plant material. Glycoside hydrolase family 5 (GH5) is a large and diverse family of enzymes able to digest a wide range of polysaccharides. Researchers at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) described the functional diversity of members of a GH5 subfamily to explore the structural origins of their broad substrate specificity, a step toward engineering better enzymes for converting biomass into biofuels and other specialty bioproducts.

Characterizing microbial strategies for lignin breakdown is important for understanding plant biomass turnover in nature, and could aid in developing industrial systems for producing commodity chemicals from this abundant renewable resource. In this report, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center researchers provide new information on the pathway used by sphingomonad bacteria to cleave the β-aryl ether bond commonly found in lignin. Specifically, they report on a previously uncharacterized heterodimeric β-etherase enzyme, with unique properties, from Novosphingobium aromaticivorans and other sphingomonads.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas and major component of the net global warming potential of bioenergy crops. Numerous environmental factors influence soil N2O production, making direct correlation difficult to any one factor under field conditions.