US Patent Issued to The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois on April 14 for "2,3-butanediol production, methyl ethyl ketone production, and induction of drought tolerance in plants" (Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,600,992, issued on April 14, was assigned to The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Urbana, Ill.).

"2,3-butanediol production, methyl ethyl ketone production, and induction of drought tolerance in plants" was invented by Yong-Su Jin (Champaign, Ill.), Jae Won Lee (Champaign, Ill.), Young B. Cho (Savoy, Ill.) and Ye-Gi Lee (Savoy, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided herein are compositions and methods for the fermentative production of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO), compositions and methods for making methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), and methods of inducing drought tolerance in plants."

The patent was filed on July 5, 2023, ...