Scientists with the Massachusettes Institute of Technology have engineered yeast that can improve the speed and efficiency of ethanol production.
By manipulating the yeast genome, the researchers have engineered a new strain of yeast that can tolerate elevated levels of both ethanol and glucose, while producing ethanol faster than un-engineered yeast.
The new strain produced 50 percent more ethanol during a 21-hour period than normal yeast.
The work is reported in the Dec. 8 issue of Science.