It would certainly be quicker to list what algae can’t do than what it can. The latest breakthrough by three American universities – in sequencing the genome of a type of alga – will support the development of advanced biofuels and new medicines.
The data gathered by biochemists from UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley and UCLA, is from the genome of a green alga named Chromochloris zofingiensis. This plant is particularly relevant to the production of sustainable biofuels as it produces a large amount of a compound called triacylglycerols, which is suited to making them.
