EDITOR'S CHOICE IN BIOENGINEERING

FULVIO314/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The paper

M.W. Keller et al., “Exploiting microbial hyperthermophilicity to produce an industrial chemical, using hydrogen and carbon dioxide,” PNAS, 110:5840-45, 2013.



The finding

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.



The methods

Adams and colleagues took five genes from one archaeon (Metallosphaera sedula) that uses hydrogen gas as an energy...