BSE News

New Biosynthesis Pathways for Five-Carbon Alcohol from Mevalonate Are Available For Licensing

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have developed two novel biosynthesis pathways for five-carbon alcohol (isopentenol or 3-methyl-3-buten-1-ol) from mevalonate that reduce the energy demand and cost of earlier applications of the mevalonate pathway by using genetically engineered host cells, whose culturing stage can happen both in anaerobic or aerobic conditions. This invention can be used in an industrial scale, even under oxygen-limited conditions. These modified pathways would be a good platform for industrial production of isopentenol which is a potential gasoline alternative and a precursor of commodity chemicals such as isoprene. Read more on the JBEI website.

JBEI’s Post-Doctoral Researcher Sarah Richardson (Biological Systems and Engineering Division) teamed up with Team Escamilla at Tumble to record a science podcast for children ages 8 – 12, created to be enjoyed by the entire family. In this podcast episode Richardson explains how she’s trying to convince bacteria to make the things we need, such as biofuels. To listen click here. To learn more about Sarah’s research area and her outreach work click here.

Faculty biochemist Jennifer Doudna and Biosciences Area Associate Laboratory Director Jay Keasling attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, to bring their unique perspectives to world leaders. Both researchers were named to Al Aribya’s “45 top scientists at Davos you should know about” list.

Xylose utilization remains the primary bottleneck in fully using the renewable plant biomass. In a Nature Scientific Reports paper entitled, “Evolved hexose transporter enhances xylose uptake and glucose/xylose co-utilization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” Biological Systems & Engineering Division researchers at Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) Amanda Reider Apel and Aindrila Mukhopadhyay report the discovery and characterization of a yeast sugar transporter variant with superior Vmax (uptake rates) for xylose. This discovery will be valuable in developing biomanufacturing strains that can use the full set of sugars generated from plant biomass. Read more on the JBEI website.

If you have a soft spot for unsung heroes, you’ll love a DNA repair protein called XPG. Berkeley Lab scientists discovered that XPG plays a previously unknown and critical role helping to maintain genome stability in human cells. Their findings also raise the possibility that the protein helps prevent breast, ovarian, and other cancers associated with defective BRCA genes.

The work, which is published online January 28 in the journal Molecular Cell, indicates XPG is essential to our health in ways far beyond it’s been given credit for.

Priscilla Cooper of the Biological Systems and Engineering Division conducted the research with Kelly Trego and several others at Berkeley Lab, as well as scientists from Colorado State University, Yale University, and Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands. Read more at the Berkeley Lab News Center.