Can Microorganisms Be A Solution To The World's Energy Problems?

Biofuels & Petroleum Microbiology :
Can Microorganisms Be A Solution To The World's Energy Problems?


Microorganisms once had an empire on the Earth, thriving by filling every nook and cranny of the environment billions of years before humans first arrived on the scene. The ability of microorganisms to grow from any infinite variety of food sources, rocks, soil, inside roots, compost piles & toxic waste etc. may play a significant role in bailing out our society from the current energy crisis. The Bio design researchers have outlined the paths, where bacteria are the best hope in producing renewable energy in large quantities without damaging the environment or competing with our food supply.
Two distinct, but complementary uses of bacteria, which is a current major challenging research area, are:
(1)The first use of the microbes is to convert biomass to useful energy. Different microorganisms can grow without oxygen to take this abundant organic matter and convert it to useful forms of energy such as methane, hydrogen, or even electricity.
(2)The second uses bacteria or algae that can capture sunlight to produce new biomass that can be turned into liquid fuels, like biodiesel, or converted by other microorganisms to useful energy.

What is it about bacteria that make them an attractive tool for a bio-energy researcher? Consider that one species of bacteria, the human gut bacterium E. coli, has become the workhorse of the multi-trillion dollar global biotech industry. Might other unearthed microbial treasures have the same potential in bio-energy applications?
For example, Synechocystis is a genus of unicellular, freshwater cyanobacteria which contains a strain Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, the first bioenergy consistent microorganism to be sequenced & its genome was released. These photosynthetic bacterium membranes contain high lipid (i.e., oil) content, which makes it an excellent biodiesel candidate.

The successes to find out the microbial bioenergy demands in-depth knowledge of the complex microbial communities that normally needs a development of a wide range of pre-genomic, genomic, and post-genomic tools. The Bio design team has unique expertise on using each kind of tool, and its perspective article provides needed information about these tools and how they can be used to disclose the structures and functions of microbial communities involved in renewable bioenergy.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Petting zoos transmit Virulent drug-resistant bacteria to visitors

Image
Human infectious diseases :  Petting zoos transmit Virulent drug-resistant bacteria to visitors Petting zoos are a popular attraction around the world, allowing direct and indirect exposure of both children and adults to a diverse range of animal species. They are different from regular zoos because rather than visitors just looking at the animals, petting zoos are interactive with children visiting, holding and petting the animals. Extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) and AmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae (AmpC-E), which are resistant to a number of commonly used antibiotics, have become a matter of great concern in both human and veterinary medicine, so understanding the likelihood of them colonizing the animals is critical to evaluating the risk that may be posed to visitors. The researchers did a survey across randomly chosen petting zoos geographically distributed throughout the world, taking samples of faecal matter as well as from the body surface (skin, fur, or feat
Read more

How to block new antibiotic resistance gene???

Image
A new antimicrobial-resistance gene, VCC-1, a ß-lactamase gene, has been discovered in benign close relatives of virulent Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera. Now, researchers have found a way to block the VCC-1 enzyme, which disables that resistance gene. The research is published in the journal Antimicrobial agents & chemotherapy . VCC-1 was first found in Canada, by investigators from the Public Health Agency of Canada, on frozen shrimp that had been imported from India, and sold in a Canadian grocery store. A handful of other ß-lactamase resistance genes have also emerged from India. ß-lactamase genes code for enzymes that can break down ß-lactams, which are a critically important class of antimicrobials . The researchers identified the gene in a non-toxigenic strain of Vibrio cholerae. Since then, VCC-1 has also been found in non-toxigenic V. cholerae off of the German coastline. The danger is that it's a short jump for a gene from non-toxigenic V. cholerae to
Read more

Antimicrobial Resistance:Searching for clues to fight antibiotic resistance

Image
To conflict the rise of drug-resistant bacteria , researchers are developing how one superbug bacteria adapts to fight with an antibiotic of last resort, hoping to find clues that can lengthen the drug's effectiveness. Researchers at Rice University and the University Of Texas Health Science Centre at Houston ran experiments to track the biochemical changes that vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) underwent as they adapted to fight another antibiotic, daptomycin. "We need to get to a platform where we can anticipate how these pathogens will become resistant to antibiotics so we can stay one step ahead of them," said Rice biochemist Youssef Shampoo, co-author of a study in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy that found VRE can develop resistance to daptomycin in more than one way. The stakes are high. In 2014, the World Health Organization reported that antibiotic-resistant infections were on pace to kill 10 million people per year worl
Read more