Feb 23 2010

Tobacco to the Rescue

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Tobacco killed an estimated 100 million people worldwide over the last century, according to the World Health Organization. Now researchers are turning cigarettes into plowshares, finding novel ways to turn the hardy plants into biochemical laboratories for making antibiotics, vaccines, plastics and now enzymes that can be used to produce clean energy. 

Tobacco leaves-Wikipedia Commons.jpg
At the University of Central Florida, researchers have made what a university news release breathlessly calls "the breakthrough of a lifetime, turning discarded fruit peels and other throwaways into cheap, clean fuel to power the world’s vehicles."
 
UCF biochemist Henry Daniell is developing enzymes that can efficiently break down cellulose in waste products, ranging from orange peels to recycled newspapers, into sugar, which can then be fermented into ethanol. (Why orange peels? Florida, which pays his bills, produces enough rinds to make about 200 million gallons of ethanol a year, Daniell estimates.)
 
Lots of companies are working on synthesizing enzymes to produce ethanol from waste organic material rather than from food crops like corn. So what's special about Daniell's method?
 
He's making his enzymes in a natural biotech lab: tobacco leaves. Letting plant cells do the required synthesis can slash the cost of production a thousand-fold, Daniell claims, making biofuel much more affordable. Indeed, one professor at Michigan State University calls Daniell's success "a great achievement." 
 
Only last month, another team of scientists at UC Berkeley published details of how they tricked tobacco plants into producing chemicals for inexpensive solar cells. They manipulated the genes of the tobacco mosaic virus, sprayed it on a field of tobacco, and let the virus turn infected cells into miniature chemical laboratories.
 
Using the cell's resources, the viruses produced tiny chromophores, which turn photons of light into energetic electrons. In theory, the chromophores could be extracted from the leaves, then sprayed on glass or plastic to create photovoltaic cells.
 
Wouldn't it be nice if tobacco could help fight global warming and save lives instead of prompting warnings from the Surgeon General?

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