Nature Biotechnol. 29, 922–927 (2011)

Industrial biofuel production using fungal agents is limited by the rate at which the fungi's enzymes break down plant cellulose and other polysaccharides into fermentable sugars. This reaction would occur more rapidly at higher temperatures, but that requires temperature-tolerant — thermophilic — fungi, so that the agent isn't killed in the process.

A team led by Adrian Tsang from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and Randy Berka of Novozymes in Davis, California, USA, have now sequenced the genomes of two thermophilic species of fungi, Myceliophthora thermophila and Thielavia terrestris. Both fungi have relatively small genomes and large amounts of heat-stable cytosine and guanine base pairs in the protein-coding regions of their DNA. Both fungi could be enhanced through breeding, as they reproduce sexually.

The authors measured the fungi's responses to a feedstock of barley (mainly cellulose) and alfalfa (which contains more pectin). Both species increased their production of metabolic enzymes, although they responded less strongly to the alfalfa. They would both make excellent industrial decomposers, the researchers say.