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Environmental metagenomics diagnosing extreme environments, tapping opportunities for clean energy

e is that the vast majority of microbes are resistant to being grown under standard laboratory conditions. Through the emerging strategy of metagenomics--isolating, sequencing, and interpreting the DNA extracted directly from the environment in question, an informative window opens onto that important and underutilized portion of the biosphere.

"Termites eat wood, but they can't extract energy from the complex lignocellulose polymers within it," Rubin says. "These polymers are broken down into simple sugars by fermenting microbes in the termite's gut, using enzymes that produce hydrogen as a byproduct.

"It's not as if we are going to put termites in our tank, but if we can harness the termite microbe enzymes that breakdown lignocellulose and make hydrogen, we may end up with a commercially viable process," says Rubin.


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Source:DOE/Joint Genome Institute


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