Thursday, September 9, 2010

Microbial Breakthrough Impacts Health, Agriculture, Biofuels

Here are a couple of short paragraphs from Jennifer Shike's article (from the Univ. of Illinois) about the groundbreaking research at the Univ. of Illinois that led to an understanding of how microbes break down hemicellulose which has far-reaching implications. I was not able to get a link to work this time to go directly to the article, but if you use the link for Cattle Network below, you can find the article by clicking on the word, MORE, next to POPULAR NEWS, and then scrolling down to the article. I believe it is well worth a little extra effort.

"U of I researchers utilized DNA sequencing and transcriptomics (RNAseq approach) to determine all of the enzymes the organism, Prevotella bryantii, uses to deconstruct hemicellulose into simple sugars."

"Even though researchers used a bacterium from the cow stomach, their results apply to microbes in the human large intestine, too. Human health and nutrition researchers are interested in the similar strategies certain rumen bacteria and human intestinal bacteria use to capture energy from dietary fiber."

http://www.cattlenetwork.com

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