Genetically engineered microorganisms could be used to produce fuels and industrial products, but some microbes’ metabolisms get in the way, degrading or blocking synthesis of the products scientists want. By keeping an extreme heat-loving microorganism below its accustomed temperature, University of Georgia biochemist Michael Adams and colleagues deactivated many of the hyperthermophile’s own metabolic processes and engineered a pathway that could ultimately be manipulated to produce liquid fuel.
M.W. Keller et al., “Exploiting microbial hyperthermophilicity to produce an industrial chemical, using hydrogen and carbon dioxide,”PNAS, 110:5840-45, 2013.
