Tuberculosis-related bug with biofuel possibilities?

Cambridge, Mass.-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers said they are trying to engineer biofuel-producing microbes from creatures that don’t typically get much attention.

Microbes that produce biofuel often use better-known organisms such as yeasts and E. coli, but microbiology Professor Anthony Sinskey and his group are cataloguing Rhodococcus baceria—soil-dwelling microbes that eat a variety of toxic compounds. The intent is to make an organism that produces biofuel, which can use a variety of fuel sources.

The bacteria strain is related to the type that causes tuberculosis. The researchers say it works well because the bacteria are hungry for a number of sugars and toxic compounds and produce lipids that can be chemically converted to biodiesel.

Sinskey, who developed a way to make polymers from bacteria, is also the co-founder of Cambridge, Mass.-based Merrimack Pharmaceuticals.

With the basic chemistry and biology achieved, the team is now looking to maximize yields, and said additional research could take another two to three years.

They have created a strain of the bacteria that can eat a mix of two types of glucose and xylose, and have also engineered strains that can feed on glycerol, a waste product of biodiesel production.

The research is part of a bigger effort MIT has embarked on to develop biofuels using synthetic biology, being pursued by companies such as Synthetic Genomics, Amyris Biotechnologies, LS9, and Joule Biotechnologies (see Microbes drive new Amyris biodiesel plant and Joule Biotech comes out of stealth with sun-powered fuel).

Earlier this year, another MIT team said it was researching chemical factories in bacteria that absorb carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, with the potential to replace petroleum as a component of fuels, textiles, chemicals and plastic (see Is bacteria cleantech's miracle drug?).

San Diego-based biomanufacturing company Genomatica uses engineered E. coli to consume sugar and produce butanediol, which is used in plastics, solvents, pharmaceuticals, automotive components and textiles (see Genomatica develops second biochemical from microbes and Genomatica develops novel bioplastic).