Fungus research at MSU could help biofuels production

Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Posted: Saturday, January 21, 2012 12:15 am
JASON BACAJ, Chronicle Staff Writer The Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Yellowstone’s hot springs are a haven for researchers interested in the prevalence of life in some of the world’s harshest environments.

Outside of their near-boiling hearts, those springs are surrounded by rings of different temperatures and colors, explained Mark Kozubal, a researcher at Montana State University who earned his doctorate studying organisms that live off the iron and sulfur in the springs’ high temperatures and acidic conditions.

The first ring is typically 70 degrees and yellow from sulfur. The next, red from iron, measures between 50 degrees and 70 degrees. Finally, there are rings of algae and fungi, he said.

It’s an acid-tolerant fungus from one of those outer rings that has Kozubal and his fellow researchers at MSU excited.

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