Green Technology

MIT engineers strain of yeast that has tolerance of higher ethanol concentrations, making it sutiable for biofuel production. In addition, this yeast performs at a higher rate of fermentation, yielding 50% more ethanol during a control period. ...

... "By manipulating the yeast genome, the researchers have engineered a new strain of yeast that can tolerate elevated levels of both ethanol and glucose, while producing ethanol faster than un-engineered yeast. The key to the MIT strategy is manipulating the genes encoding proteins responsible for regulating gene transcription and, in turn, controlling the repertoire of genes expressed in a particular cell. These types of transcription factors bind to DNA and turn genes on or off, essentially controlling what traits a cell expresses. In this case, the researchers targeted two different transcription factors. They got their best results with a factor known as a TATA-binding protein, which when altered in three specific locations caused the over-expression overexpresion of at least a dozen genes, all of which were found to be necessary to elicit an improved ethanol tolerance, thus allowing that strain of yeast to survive high ethanol concentrations. " ...

Via MIT: Engineered yeast speeds ethanol production