{"id":463,"date":"2014-12-10T14:50:54","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T19:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.eckerd.edu\/?p=411"},"modified":"2022-11-03T12:06:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T16:06:49","slug":"marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eckerd.edu\/news\/blog\/marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine science professor Koty Sharp co-authors groundbreaking research that could lead to new biofuel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Assistant Professor of Marine Science and Biology Koty Sharp, Ph.D., co-authored a research paper that is getting national attention<\/a> because its findings point to a new way of producing environmentally friendly biofuels.<\/p>\n

The research, published recently in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em><\/a>, focused on the digestive properties of a species of shipworm, known as termites of the seas for their ability to destroy wooden ships and docks. Shipworms, which are actually a type of clam, have destroyed everything from Columbus\u2019 ships to the wharves of San Francisco.<\/p>\n

It turns out that shipworms break down the wood with the help of bacteria that live in their gills not their guts. More importantly, however, the research identified which bacteria produce enzymes to break down the cellulose, and it characterized the enzymes that degrade cellulose. That could lead to new industrial methods to turn cellulose into biofuel.<\/p>\n

Sharp conducted the research as a postdoc from 2008 to 2011 at the Ocean Genome Legacy at New England BioLabs. It was a truly collaborative effort involving researchers from multiple institutions around the country, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGene-mapping enabled researchers to identify the particular types of bacteria at work in the shipworms’ gills, which take up about one-third of their strange bodies,\u2019\u2019 according to the Minneapolis Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Documenting the bacteria used by the shipworm was a breakthrough for the study, which was funded partially by the U.S. Department of Energy. The discovery would make the process of turning cellulose into fuel a much more efficient and cost-effective method than is used today.Shipworms are animals whose closest relatives are the Ipswich Steamer clam. They are weird, tubular creatures that look more like worms than clams and are found in submerged wood in seawater all over the world, including Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

The shipworms used in the research were from Puget Sound. \u201cFirst, the researchers used genomics to sequence the genomes of the gill bac\u00adteria and to iden\u00adtify the genes pre\u00addicted to be involved in breaking down plant matter,\u201d according to Science Daily<\/a>. \u201cThen, they searched the gut in hopes of finding pro\u00adteins there that were encoded in genomes of the gill bac\u00adteria. From their exam\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion, the researchers did in fact find these proteins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a very exciting project and the findings hold tremendous potential,\u201d Sharp \u00a0said. \u201cThe approaches used in this project, including metagenomics sequencing and analysis, are powerful new techniques that allow researchers to describe how organisms function. Just as we have learned much more about human health and ecology through the sequencing of the human genome, we now are able to describe how organisms function in the environment and interact with one another using environmental metagenomics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us at Eckerd are proud of the work Dr. Sharp did on this project and pleased that our students benefit,\u201d said Dean of Students Suzan Harrison, Ph.D. \u201cShe has brought her expertise and the tools of metagenomics to her laboratory and teaching at Eckerd College. Now, the students are able to use these leading-edge technologies to research the ecology and evolution of organisms in threatened marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other support for the research was provided by the National Sci\u00adence Foun\u00adda\u00adtion, the Fog\u00adarty Inter\u00adna\u00adtional Center at the National Insti\u00adtutes of Health and New Eng\u00adland Bio\u00adLabs. The principal investigator was Dr. Dan Distel, director of the Ocean Genome Legacy Center, now based at North\u00adeastern Uni\u00adver\u00adsity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Assistant Professor of Marine Science and Biology Koty Sharp, Ph.D., co-authored a research paper that is getting national attention because its findings point to a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-academics"},"yoast_head":"\nMarine science professor Koty Sharp co-authors groundbreaking research that could lead to new biofuel - News | Eckerd College<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eckerd.edu\/news\/blog\/marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marine science professor Koty Sharp co-authors groundbreaking research that could lead to new biofuel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Assistant Professor of Marine Science and Biology Koty Sharp, Ph.D., co-authored a research paper that is getting national attention because its findings point to a...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.eckerd.edu\/news\/blog\/marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News | Eckerd College\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-10T19:50:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-03T16:06:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Scherberger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Scherberger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eckerd.edu\\\/news\\\/blog\\\/marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eckerd.edu\\\/news\\\/blog\\\/marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Scherberger\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eckerd.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/29ce85be013653a48b4d81f019e3c03e\"},\"headline\":\"Marine science professor Koty Sharp co-authors groundbreaking research that could lead to new biofuel\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-12-10T19:50:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-03T16:06:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eckerd.edu\\\/news\\\/blog\\\/marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":599,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Academics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eckerd.edu\\\/news\\\/blog\\\/marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eckerd.edu\\\/news\\\/blog\\\/marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.eckerd.edu\\\/news\\\/blog\\\/marine-science-professor-koty-sharp-co-authors-groundbreaking-research-that-could-lead-to-new-biofuel\\\/\",\"name\":\"Marine science professor Koty Sharp co-authors groundbreaking research that could lead to new biofuel - 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