Creating corn for cars

BOSTON -- A new variety of corn developed and patented by Michigan State University scientists could turn corn leaves and stalks into products that are just as valuable as the golden kernels. Right now, most U.S. ethanol is made from corn kernels. This is because breaking down the cellulose in corn leaves and stalks into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol is difficult and expensive.

"We've developed two generations of Spartan Corn," said Mariam Sticklen, MSU professor of crop and soil sciences. "Both corn varieties contain the enzymes necessary to break down cellulose and hemicellulose into simple sugars in their leaves. This will allow for more cost-effective, efficient production of ethanol."

Sticklen will co-chair a panel on energy crops for biofuels today at BIO2007, the annual international convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

"In the future, corn growers will be able to sell their corn stalks and leaves as well as their corn grain for ethanol production," Sticklen said. "What is now a waste product will become an economically viable commodity." ###

Contact: Mariam Sticklen stickle1@msu.edu 517-230-2929 Michigan State University, Contact: Jamie DePolo, Office of Biobased Technologies: (609) 354-8403 (cell phone), depolo@msu.edu

This research is supported by Edenspace Systems Corp., the U.S. Department of Energy, the Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research, the Corn Marketing Program of Michigan and the MSU Research Excellence Program.

(Editor’s note: Mariam Sticklen can be reached May 6-9 at BIO2007 on her cell phone at (517) 230-2929. Jamie DePolo can be reached on her cell phone at (609) 354-8403.)

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Freedom Calendar 05/05/07 - 05/12/07

May 5, 1983, Hispanic Republican Patricia Diaz Dennis appointed by President Ronald Reagan as first Hispanic woman on National Labor Relations Board; later served as FCC Commissioner under Reagan and as Regent of Texas State University under Gov. George W. Bush.

May 6, 1960, President Dwight Eisenhower signs Republicans’ Civil Rights Act of 1960, overcoming 125-hour, around-the-clock filibuster by 18 Senate Democrats.

May 7, 1990, President George H. W. Bush proclaims first Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.

May 8, 2003, Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and other Republican leaders gather at Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, announce $1 million restoration effort.

May 9, 2001, President George W. Bush nominates Miguel Estrada to be first Hispanic to serve on U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit; Democrats in Senate successfully filibuster nomination.

May 10, 1866, U.S. House passes Republicans’ 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the laws to all citizens; 100% of Democrats vote no.

May 11, 1949, Birth of African-American Republican and sharecropper’s daughter Janice Rogers Brown, nominated by President George W. Bush as Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

May 12, 1850, Birth of U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA), whose 1890 Federal Elections Bill enforcing African-American voting rights passed House on party-line vote but was defeated in Senate by a Democrat filibuster.

“A healthy republican government must rest upon individuals, not upon classes or sections. As soon as it becomes government by a class or by a section, it departs from the old American ideal.”

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

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