Researchers Harvest Enzymes From Heat-Loving Fungi for Cheaper Biofuels - DailyTech

Some of nature's most extreme little fungi could help pretreat auto fuel feedstocks in the near future

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genomics Institute (JGI) have been busy tracking down new enzymes that can pretreat feedstocks for biofuels at higher temperatures.

Nature has evolved a host of proteins that can break down a multitude of commonly occuring natural compounds.  The enzymes' catalysts operate at a speed largely depend on the temperature. Higher temperatures means faster reactions, typically, but it also can cause protein denaturation (when proteins lose their carefully ordered structure, via the disolution of hydrogen bonds, etc.).  Thus organisms who operate at higher temperatures require special denaturation-resistant enzymes, but have the advantage of being able to prcoess materials faster.

With biofuels the biggest challenge is converting cellulose -- the primary sugar found in common biomass feedstocks, like fast growing grasses -- into individual sugars that can be fermented.  To do that scientists have borrowed enzymes from nature.