Yellowstone’s hot springs are a haven for researchers interested in the prevalence of life in some of the world’s harshest environments.
Outside of their near-boiling hearts, those springs are surrounded by rings of different temperatures and colors, explained Mark Kozubal, a researcher at Montana State University who earned his doctorate studying organisms that live off the iron and sulfur in the springs’ high temperatures and acidic conditions.
The first ring is typically 70 degrees and yellow from sulfur. The next, red from iron, measures between 50 degrees and 70 degrees. Finally, there are rings of algae and fungi, he said.
It’s an acid-tolerant fungus from one of those outer rings that has Kozubal and his fellow researchers at MSU excited.
While working with a 10th-grade science class, Kozubal scooped a bit of algae from the outer ring to see if the class could grow algae for biofuels. Yet while trying to grow the algae, this fungus kept taking over.
To Kozubal, this was amazing: a fungus from an extreme zone in Yellowstone eating algae.
He took it back to his lab and tested how acidic an environment it could live in while feeding on glucose, a type of sugar.
Kozubal found the fungus could survive in an acidic habitat with a pH of 6, an acidity level similar to cow’s milk. What was really amazing, though, was when he took it out of the glucose solution.
“When I dried it out, it just oozed oil,” Kozubal said. “It was taking that glucose and converting it into pretty high percentage lipids. That’s when we really got excited.”
The oil it produced contained a ratio of oleic and steric acids that’s nearly ideal for biofuels, Kozubal said.
Now Kozebal and fellow researchers William Inskeep and Richard Macur are working with MSU’s Technology Transfer Office to secure a commercial license and funding for future research into the fungus’ capabilities and applications.
The tech transfer office takes research from the university’s labs and patents the inventions or discoveries that could have commercial applications. Then it helps pair the researchers’ work with private companies to fund further research and purchase commercial licenses, said Becky Mahruin, director of the technology transfer office.
Licensing has brought in revenue totaling $2.5 million over the past six years, she said.
University researchers and the tech transfer office are in regular contact about the work going on. When research such as Kozubal’s comes up, tech transfer pushes it through the patenting process, which can cost “tens of thousands of dollars,” Mahurin said.
Then the research is marketed to companies for commercial licensing. Terms of a commercial license typically cover the cost of the patent fees, include an upfront license fee and a percentage of royalties paid to the university.
If no companies can reach terms for a license, the transfer office looks for a company willing to put more money into the research in exchange for the right to have the first option for a commercial license once the research has developed further.
“It’s a patient process,” Mahurin said.
But Mahurin and Kozubal are confident a company will invest in the fungus research. Already, companies such as Cargill and BP are showing interest in the fungus, Kozubal said.
“(The tech transfer office has) been doing a great job with getting us in touch with corporate sponsors, setting up the agreements, making sure that confidentiality is in place and having us talk the science after that,” Kozubal said.
Kozubal believes funding will come through because the fungus has interesting capabilities that have the researchers excited.
After tinkering with its environment, they found that their fungus can directly produce hydrogen and ethanol.
Right now, the fungus takes about 5 percent of his time, Kozubal estimated. But once funding for further research is in place, he plans to take a two-pronged approach: mapping the fungus’ genome and isolating the fungus’ enzymes that break down cellulose.
Since the fungus can live at a low pH, he believes enzymes from it will also live at the lower pH. If Kozubal and the other researchers can isolate one enzyme active in digesting cellulose, it could have an application in the industrial production of biofuel.
Producing biofuel from wheat straw, for example, requires reducing the size of the straw, treating it with acid and then raising its pH with expensive chemicals. Enzymes then break the straw down further before fuel can be distilled from it.
If an enzyme from Kozubal’s fungus could work at a low enough pH, companies could add it to the wheat straw right away — cutting out the need for expensive chemicals.
“It’s got a lot of genes that can do some very interesting things,” Kozubal said.
Jason Bacaj may be reached at jasonb@dailychronicle.com or 582-2635.
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