Potential new source for biofuel found

YORK, England, March 10 (UPI) -- British scientists say they've discovered a mechanism that might lead to a new way of converting wood and straw into liquid biofuels.

Researchers at the Universities of York and Portsmouth studied wood-eating gribble worms that damage wooden boats, piers and docks in coastal communities. The scientists, seeking to determine how the tiny worms digest wood, examined genes expressed in the guts of the marine isopods and found their digestive system contains enzymes that attack polymers in wood.

The researchers, led by Professors Simon McQueen-Mason and Neil Bruce at York and Simon Cragg at Portsmouth, reported one of the most abundant enzymes they discovered is a cellulose-degrading enzyme never before seen in animals.

"This may provide clues as to how this conversion could be preformed in an industrial setting," McQueen-Mason said.

The study is reported in the U.S.-published Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.