Getting Bacteria to Eat More

Tech Review spotlights work in Anthony Sinskey's lab on Rhodococcus opacus, a soil microbe that can eat sugars and toxins, related to biofuels. Sinskey and his colleagues have sequenced the bacteria's genome and mapped its genes to its metabolic pathways in hopes that they can learn how it is so efficient at producing tryacylglycerols, which can be converted to biodiesel. They have also engineered a Rhodococcus strain so it can feed on glucose and xylose, and another that eats a biodiesel production byproduct, glycerol. "I don't think I'm far behind lots of companies that have lots of publicity in this area," Sinskey says. "I think in two to three years I will have a robust process."