A New Myco-Brew

Jennifer Flynn

Myco-diesel joins the list of other wonderful products emerging out of the mushroom world. Scientists from Montana State University stumbled upon a fungus growing in Patagonia which digests cellulose while releasing a combination of hydrocarbons incredibly similar to diesel fuel. The resulting compounds are being termed myco-diesel. The fungus, Gliocladium roseum, lives in the Ulmo trees in the rainforest and may serve to speed up the decomposition of plant wastes on farms that are currently used for biofuel production. The current biofuel production method uses enzymes to decompose cellulose into sugars which are then digested by microbes to be turned into ethanol.  

Story suggested by Thomas Vaughan

Image: "Common Mushroom clusters" by photogril17 on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.