Can Microorganisms Be A Solution To The World's Energy Problems?

Microorganisms once had an empire on the Earth, thriving by filling every nook and cranny of the environment billions of years before humans first arrived on the scene. The ability of microorganisms to grow from any infinite variety of food sources, rocks, soil, inside roots, compost piles & toxic waste etc. may play a significant role in bailing out our society from the current energy crisis. The Bio design researchers have outlined the paths, where bacteria are the best hope in producing renewable energy in large quantities without damaging the environment or competing with our food supply.

Two distinct, but complementary uses of bacteria, which is a current major challenging research area, are:

(1)The first use of the microbes is to convert biomass to useful energy. Different microorganisms can grow without oxygen to take this abundant organic matter and convert it to useful forms of energy such as methane, hydrogen, or even electricity.

(2)The second uses bacteria or algae that can capture sunlight to produce new biomass that can be turned into liquid fuels, like bio-diesel, or converted by other microorganisms to useful energy.

What is it about bacteria that make them an attractive tool for a bio-energy researcher? Consider that one species of bacteria, the human gut bacterium E. coli, has become the workhorse of the multi-trillion dollar global biotech industry. Might other unearthed microbial treasures have the same potential in bio-energy applications?

For example, Synechocystis is a genus of unicellular, freshwater cyanobacteria which contains a strain Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, the first bioenergy consistent microorganism to be sequenced & its genome was released. These photosynthetic bacterium membranes contain high lipid (i.e., oil) content, which makes it an excellent biodiesel candidate.

The successes to find out the microbial bioenergy demands in-depth knowledge of the complex microbial communities that normally needs a development of a wide range of pre-genomic, genomic, and post-genomic tools. The Bio design team has unique expertise on using each kind of tool, and its perspective article provides needed information about these tools and how they can be used to disclose the structures and functions of microbial communities involved in renewable bioenergy.

An article by: Utkalendu suvendusekhar samantaray MSc Biotechnology Utkal University

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