Scientists have discovered that a green fungus known for causing problems during World War Two may now be the answer to producing biofuels - particularly ethanol - of the future. Trichoderma reesei once ate through uniforms and canvas tents of soldiers involved in the war and researchers now say it has ability to break down plant fibers into simple sugars needed to make the fuel.

Non-food plants such as switchgrass are typically not ideal for creating biofuels due to the difficulty of converting them into sugar, but a new report in the journal Natural Biotechnology says the fungus, also known as T. ressdei, could change all that. If T. reesei is mass produced, sugar for use in biofuels could be created by adding the fungus to plant pulp.

"Our analysis, coupled with the genome sequence data, provides a road map for constructing enhanced T. reesei strains for industrial applications such as biofuel production," Diego Martinez of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and colleagues wrote.

"We were aware of T. reesei's reputation as producer of massive quantities of degrading enzymes. However we were surprised by how few enzyme types it produces, which suggested to us that its protein secretion system is exceptionally efficient," Martinez, who is also at the University of New Mexico, said in a statement.

» Reuters Environment