Scientists discover how to protect yeast from damage in biofuel production

(University of Wisconsin-Madison) Some chemicals used to speed up the breakdown of plants for production of biofuels like ethanol are poison to the yeasts that turn the plant sugars into fuel. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and several Department of Energy laboratories have identified two changes to a single gene that can make the yeast tolerate the pretreatment chemicals.
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: news