Science to the Rescue: Synthetic Genomics and the Road to Commercial Biofuels

One of the knocks against advanced algae biofuels is that
they are not cost competitive with conventional petroleum – which is true.  But science may eventually offer a way around this
particular challenge.

Writing recently in Yale
Environment 360, Marc Gunther lays out the potential for science to
revolutionize the biofuels business. “By
far the biggest opportunity to reduce the costs of algal fuels lies within the
algae,” Gunther writes. “Just
as crop scientists have bred corn and wheat to improve yields, with spectacular
results, the algae companies are using conventional breeding and genetic
modification to develop strains of algae to grow faster, yield more oil, and
repel pests.”

The biggest opportunity may come from synthetic genomics, a
relatively nascent field that enables scientists to build living organisms with
special characteristics from scratch. By closely studying strains of algae,
scientists can map entire genetic sequences and identify the genes tied to
specific physical properties like growth and oil yield. Using the building
blocks of the genome – DNA nucleotides – scientists can then build from scratch
the most efficient algae strain for producing oils that can be refined into
gasoline and jet fuel, lowering the costs for producers.

In an interview with Scientific
American in November 2011, J. Craig Venter, the man behind mapping the
human genome, described the effort this way:

Everybody
is looking for a naturally occurring algae that is going to be a miracle cell
to save the world and, after a century of looking, people still haven’t found
it. We hope we’re different. The [genetic] tools give us a new approach: being
able to rewrite the genetic code and get cells to do what we want them to do.  

By using synthetic genomics to create novel strains of algae,
engineers can focus not just on making the algae more efficient oil producers,
but also making them resistant to viruses that destroy whole ponds of algae and can drive
up production costs. “The
same genetic engineering and genome engineering we have, we can make cells that
are resistant to viruses,” Venter told Scientific
American. “Getting
algae that are really robust
and can withstand true industrial conditions on a commercial basis. You can’t
afford to shut down a plant for contamination. Most algae growers have to do
that at a fairly frequent pace.”

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