Taiwan’s Academia Sinica Debuts 1st Yeast Energy Transforming Technology

 2012/08/29 Taipei, Aug. 29, 2012 (CENS)--A research group recently developed the world`s first yeast energy transforming technology that effectively turns plant cellulose into bio-energy, according to Academia Sinica of Taiwan.The one-step method can simultaneously introduce multiple genes into a yeast host, with such genome technology being promising for economical production of ethanol from plant cellulose, as well as many other synthetic biological applications.Academia Sinica pointed out that the new technology is expected to mature and transferred in one year to substitute existing bio-fuel productions by triggering the next agricultural revolution.The technology platform PGASO (Promoter-based Gene Assembly and Simultaneous Overexpression) is led by Wen-Hsiung Li, Distinguished Research Fellow and Director of the Biodiversity Research Center. The researchers from Academia Sinica`s Biodiversity Research Center, Genomics Researcher Center and Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, and National Chung Hsing University recently invented a method by which multiple-genes can be introduced into a host organism genome in a single step.Much interest revolves the production of ethanol from plant cellulose due to abundance of natural plant biomass and promise of reduction of greenhouse gases by using cellulosic ethanol rather than gasoline as fuel. Among the current possibilities for development of methods for cellulosic ethanol production, bio-processing is preferred because of simplicity and potential low cost, Academia Sinica said.As PGASO can in principle be applied to a range of hosts and is not limited to yeast, designer microbes engineered by the PGASO technology may also have the potential to produce bio-fuel, expensive pharmaceuticals, rare natural compounds, and even biodegrade plastic.Wong Chi-huey, Academia Sinica president, pointed out that bio-fuel is one of emerging alternative energies among solar and wind powers etc. Due to technological problems, he added, the conversion efficiency of solar power is still too low to be more popular and affordable, while existing bio-fuel comes mainly from beans and corns, leading to high cost and possible food shortage.(by Quincy Liang)