There can’t be many people living on the isle of Wight who don’t know what a gribble is.
Last year the wonderful Yarmouth Pier had it’s supports replaced after irrevocable damage was caused by the hungry gribble worms. As far as wood in water goes, the gribble worm is a bit of a disaster as many a fisherman will know from having to scrub them off the bottom of their boats.
So who would have thought that this pesky little isopod might be the key to a revolution in liquid bio-fuels?
Former Island fisherman, Simon McQueen-Mason, now a Professor at the University of York, believes that the potent digestive enzymes that the gribble produces to convert wood into the sugars they live on, may help in the development of sustainable carbon-neutral fuels.
Pretty cool stuff eh!
He’s working with marine biologists from Portsmouth University to pinpoint the enzymes produced in the bug’s stomach
He says …
“Producing sugar from non-food biomass, such as wood or straw, in a sustainable way is one of the biggest challenges we face. The problem is that the sugars that we need to use are tied up in the stems of plants, in complex polysaccharides of the cell walls. If we can get these sugars out of biomass, in a cost effective manner, they can be fermented to produce the liquid biofuels we need to replace petrol.
“Most animals that consume wood have digestive tracts packed with microbes that help to digest the cell wall polymers, but the gribble’s is sterile, so it must produce all the enzymes needed to break down the wood itself. We have done extensive DNA sequencing of the genes expressed in its gut, and we have detected cellulases never seen in animals before. We want to see if it’s possible to adapt the gribble digestive enzymes for industrial purposes.”
The research takes place at the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products in the University of York’s Department of Biology who say that this
“.. is part of the UK’s biggest ever public investment in bioenergy research launched yesterday. The £27 million BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre aims to provide the science that could help to replace the petrol in our cars with fuels derived from plants through a variety of research projects.”
Our very good friends over at Ecclestone George were commissioned last year to create a piece of public art (their forte) for the re-opening of Yarmouth Pier and came up trumps again with this fantastic bench created in the form of the gribble worm. Looks fab doesn’t it!
Both images: Copyright Ecclestone George Public Artists
