UWM Food Scientist Engineers Lactic Acid Bacteria to Produce Ethanol

The fermentation of beer and wine can be contaminated with lactic acid bacteria, leading to the production of lactic acid rather than alcohol. This same problem affects the ethanol industry. Ethanol plants fight lactic acid bacteria with antibiotics. However, this is controversial since bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics.

Lactic Solutions, a new company founded the University of Wisconsin–Madison professor James Steele, is advancing genetic engineering to transform the enemies into friends. Instead of killing lactic acid bacteria with antibiotics, he engineered genes for ethanol production into these organisms to produce ethanol, not lactic acid. The new bacteria are also capable of consuming sugars not available to the yeast.

The ethanol industry understands that antibiotics are a short-term solution. This new technology now offers the industry a long-term solution that also increases conversion of sugars to ethanol.