Termite guts may hold key to better biofuels

Scientist Falk Warnecke and colleagues used industrial-scale DNA sequencing to show that the guts of termites contain a huge range of bacterial genes responsible for making many previously unknown enzymes.

The next step will be to figure out the precise role of these enzymes and eventually to synthesise them for use in engineering schemes that can convert wood into biofuels, such as hydrogen or ethanol.

The potential is considerable, given the sheer efficiency of the termite's intestines, which can theoretically turn one sheet of paper into two litres of hydrogen, according to Andreas Brune of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany.

"Good food is today being turned into fuel instead of being fed to people. If we could make ethanol from wood waste instead that would clearly be a good thing," Brune said.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Elisabeth O'Leary)