A special issue on Insects and Biofuels is published in Insect Science, 2010, Vol. 17, No. 3, which is guest edited by Dr. Jian-Zhong Sun (Biofuels Institute, School of the Environment, Jiangsu University, China) and Dr. Michael E. Scharf (University of Florida, USA).

"In line with the requirements for sustainable economies and clean environments, cellulose-based biofuels have recently received tremendous attention both in industry and academic communities worldwide. Alternative and renewable fuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass offer the potential to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and mitigate global climate change.” In this case, the special issue on Insects and Biofuels comes at a critical and timely moment, which includes 5 review articles and 7 original articles.

This special issue will promote research and collaborations on how insects digest lignocellulosic material, identify the types of mechanisms involved in these processes, describe what is known about the role of symbiotic microbes in this process, and connect this knowledge to potential applications to biofuels production, as well as other relevant scientific areas. 

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Contents

Preface

Exploring and integrating cellulolytic systems of insects to advance biofuel technology

J.Z. Sun and M. E. Scharf

Review articles

Potential of termite-based biomass pre-treatment strategies for use in bioethanol production
M. E. Scharf and D. G. Boucias

The scarab gut: A potential bioreactor for bio-fuel production
S.W. Huang, H.Y. Zhang, S. Marshall and T. A. Jackson

Methods for discovery and characterization of cellulolytic enzymes from insects
J. D. Willis, C. Oppert and J. L. Jurat-Fuentes

Molecular approaches to study the insect gut symbiotic microbiota at the ‘omics’ age
W.B. Shi, R. Syrenne, J.Z. Sun and J. S. Yuan

Arthropods and biofuel production systems in North America
D.A. Landis and B.P. Werling

Original articles

Hydrogen emission by three wood-feeding subterranean termite species (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae): Production and characteristics
Y. Cao, J.Z. Sun, J. M. Rodriguez and K. C. Lee

Hydrolysis of filter-paper cellulose to glucose by two recombinant endogenous glycosyl hydrolases of Coptotermes formosanus
D. Zhang, A. R. Lax, J. M. Bland, J. Yu, N. Fedorova and W. C. Nierman

Identification of proteins involved in lignocellulose degradation using in gel zymogram analysis combined with mass spectroscopy-based peptide analysis of gut proteins from larval Asian longhorned beetles, Anoplophora glabripennis
S. M. Geib, M. Tien and K. Hoover

Comparison of gut-associated and nest-associated microbial communities of a fungus-growing termite (Odontotermes yunnanensis)
Y. Long, L. Xie, N. Liu, X. Yan, M. H. Li, M.Z. Fan and Q. Wang

In-situ oxygen profiling and lignin modification in guts of wood-feeding termites
J. Ke, J.Z. Sun, H.D. Nguyen, D. Singh, K. C. Lee, H. Beyenal and S.L. Chen

Analysis of cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzyme activity within the Tipula abdominalis (Diptera: Tipulidae) larval gut and characterization of Crocebacterium ilecola gen. nov., sp. nov., isolated from the Tipula abdominalis larval hindgut
T. E. Rogers and J.Doran-Peterson

Mining diversity of the natural biorefinery housed within Tipula abdominalis larvae for use in an industrial biorefinery for production of lignocellulosic ethanol
D. M. Cook and J. Doran-Peterson