Modified yeast can make more ethanol

UPI.com
Published: Aug. 19, 2010 at 7:31 PM

CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A genetically modified strain of yeast with a higher tolerance for alcohol could lead to more efficient and economical biofuel production, researchers say.

A University of Illinois professor of microbial genomics says the modified yeast could improve microbial fermentation of biomass crops, a process that yields the alcohol-based fuels ethanol and iso-butanol as it converts sugars from biomass into biofuels, a university release said Thursday.

"At a certain concentration, the biofuels that are being created become toxic to the yeast used in making them. Our goal was to find a gene or genes that reduce this toxic effect," said Yong-Su Jin, an assistant professor in the university's Department of Food Science said.

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