Adding cornstarch to biodegradable plastic cuts by 40 percent the cost of making items from this plastic. Biodegradable resins have been too expensive to use as the sole ingredient in products such as plastic cutlery. ARS researchers teamed with a chemist from Zeneca, Inc. of Wilmington, DE, to develop a formula that adds 25 percent cornstarch to environmentally friendly additives and biodegradable polyester resins. Plastic cutlery made from the new formula was durable.
Plant Polymer Research, Peoria, IL
J.L. Willett, (309) 681-6432

Latex gloves and infant pacifiers made from rubber of native U.S. plants may be closer to reality. ARS scientists discovered that the size of a key molecule controls the rate at which plants produce rubber. The discovery boosts ARS technology for genetically engineering guayule, a desert shrub, and annuals like goldenrod and milkweed as domestic sources of natural rubber. Some 40,000 commercial products are made with natural rubber, harvested only from the tropical Brazilian rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis. Over 2,500 other plants also make natural rubber, but in most the amounts are too small to be commercially exploitable. ARS scientists have found that the size of a molecule, called an initiator, controls the rate of rubber production. ARS scientists hope to insert into guayule and other plants new genes that will make more of the large initiator molecules, thus boosting the plants' rubber production and their potential as profitable new crops for U.S. farmers.
Process Biotechnology Research, Albany, CA
Katrina Cornish, (510) 559-5950

A specially designed microorganism can turn three sugars from corn into fuel, yielding more ethanol from a bushel of corn. ARS researchers used a bacterial "bug" called Klebsiella oxytoca, which was genetically engineered in collaborative studies with a University of Florida researcher. In laboratory studies, the researchers produced up to 84 percent theoretical ethanol yield from the sugars--arabinose, xylose and glucose. These sugars are not presently used by industry in making ethanol. The engineered K. oxytoca carries alcohol-making genes borrowed from Zymomonas mobilis, an organism found in cactus plants. Z. mobilis is used in Mexico to make Pulque, an alcoholic drink containing 35 percent alcohol.
Fermentation Biochemistry, Peoria, IL
Rodney J. Bothast, (309) 681-6566

Last Updated: December 12, 1996
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