200% ethanol boost from Oz sugar
University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, molecular geneticist Robert Birch got more than he bargained for when he introduced a bacterial gene into sugarcane to convert sucrose into its high-value isomer, isomaltulose. In fact, the gene encoding sucrose isomerase, cloned from Pantoea dispersa, a harmless colonist of the crop's leaves, delivered twice as much sugar as Birch expected. Some of the transgenic plants were producing isomaltulose at up to 110% of the normal concentration of sucrose. Others produced little or no isomaltulose, but yielded up to 100% more sucrose. In the past 50 years, breeders had been unable to improve sugarcane's yield by even 1%. Last August, CSR, Australia's biggest sugar refiner, and its commercial partner, UQ's commercial arm, UniQuest, received an AUD$5 ($3.8) million federal research grant, under AusIndustry's Renewable Energy Development Initiative, to develop Birch's high-yield sugarcane, dubbed 'SugarBoost', as a source of the 'green' fuel ethanol. The partners recently planted the first, small-scale, contained field trial of the transgenic sugarcane, with approval from the office of the gene technology regulator. Queensland University of Technology molecular geneticist James Dale, also founder and CEO of Brisbane-based 'biopharming' company Farmacule, describes the development as “huge,” in terms of its significance to Australia's nascent ethanol industry. Indeed, Australia has been battling to keep its sugar industry alive in the face of cheap sugar from Brazil. Dale adds that it might eventually be possible to engineer similar yield increases in other ethanol feedstock crops like sugar beet and maize. GON
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