Search for better #biofuels microbes leads to human gut Scientists have scoured cow rumens and termite guts for microbes that can efficiently break down plant cell walls for the production of next-generation biofuels, but some of the best microbial candidates actually may reside in the human lower intestine. >>Their study, is the 1st to use biochem approaches to confirm the hypothesis that microbes in the #human #gut can digest #fiber, breaking it down into simple sugars in order to ferment them into nutrients that nourish human cells. This is also good for #biofuels production, since the same sugars can be fed to #yeast to generate #ethanol and other liquid fuels. The human microbes appear to be endowed with #enzymes that break down a complex plant fiber component more efficiently than the most efficient microbes found in the cow rumen. >>Human microbes, #Bacteroides #intestinalis and Bacteroides #ovatus, which belong to the same bacterial phylum as Prevotella from the cow rumen (that digests hemicellulose) were more active than the enzymes from the cow >>#MOA: many single polypeptide (protein) chains actually contained 2 enzymes, one of which was embedded in the other. The embedded component was a carbohydrate-binding module (#CBM), which latches onto carbohydrates eg hemicellulose. This enzyme shreds the plant fiber hemicellulose so that other enzymes can work on it to break it down into its unit sugars. #CONC: The study points to human microbes as a potentially potent source of microbes that can aid in biofuels production news.illinois.edu/news/14/0923gut_enzymes_IsaacCann.html
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:50:03 +0000
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