Scientists Discover How to Protect Yeast from Damage in Biofuel Production

Some chemicals used to speed up the breakdown of plants for production of biofuels like ethanol are poison to the yeasts that turn the plant sugars into fuel. Researchers from the UW-Madison-based Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Joint BioEnergy Institute, and several Department of Energy National Laboratories have identified two changes to a single gene that can make yeast tolerate the pretreatment chemicals. They published their findings recently in the journal Genetics. To learn more read the University of  Wisconsin-Madison news release.