Ulmo y Gliocladium roseum

En Noviembre de 2008 publique la primera noticia del Ulmo como productor de un hongo que a su vez produce diesel.

Ahora me llegó el paper completito ... les copio el Abstract y la referencia.

The production of myco-diesel hydrocarbons and
their derivatives by the endophytic fungus
Gliocladium roseum (NRRL 50072)
Gary Strobel, Berk Knighton, Katreena Kluck, Yuhao Ren,
Tom Livinghouse, Meghan Griffin, Daniel Spakowicz and Joe Sears

Correspondence
Gary Strobel
uplgs@montana.edu

An endophytic fungus, Gliocladiun roseum (NRRL 50072), produced a series of volatile
hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives on an oatmeal-based agar under microaerophilic
; conditions as analysed by solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME)-GC/MS. As an example, this
organism produced an extensive series of the acetic acid esters of straight-chained alkanes
including those of pentyl, hexyl, heptyl, octyl, sec-octyl and decyl alcohols. Other hydrocarbons
were also produced by this organism, including undecane, 2,6-dimethyl; decane, 3,3,5-trimethyl;
cyclohexene, 4-methyl; decane, 3,3,6-trimethyl; and undecane, 4,4-dimethyl. Volatile
hydrocarbons were also produced on a cellulose-based medium, including heptane, octane,
benzene, and some branched hydrocarbons. An extract of the host plant, Eucryphia cordifolia
(ulmo), supported the growth and hydrocarbon production of this fungus. Quantification of volatile organic compounds, as measured by proton transfer mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), indicated a level of organic substances in the order of 80 p.p.m.v. (parts per million by volume) in the air space above the oatmeal agar medium in an 18 day old culture. Scaling the PTR-MS profile the acetic acid heptyl ester was quantified (at 500 p.p.b.v.) and subsequently the amount of each compound in the GC/MS profile could be estimated; all yielded a total value of about 4.0 p.p.m.v. The hydrocarbon profile of G. roseum contains a number of compounds normally associated with diesel fuel and so the volatiles of this fungus have been dubbed ‘myco-diesel’. Extraction of liquid cultures of the fungus revealed the presence of numerous fatty acids and other lipids. All of these findings have implications in energy production and utilization.