PARIS: A reddish microbe discovered at a secret location in the rainforests of northern Patagonia has been found to expel hydrocarbon gas, with promise as a new source of biofuel.

Its potential is so startling that the discoverers have coined the term "myco-diesel" - a derivation of the word for fungus - to describe the various hydrocarbons that it produces as a gas.

"The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel that anything we use at the moment," he said.

Strobel, a 70-year-old veteran of the world's rainforests, said that he came across the fungus, called Gliocladium roseum thanks to "two cases of serendipity."

The first lucky break happened in the late 1990s, when Strobel's team, working in Honduras, came across a previously unidentified fungus called Muscodor albus. By sheer accident, they found that M. Albus releases a powerful, volatile (meaning it readily evaporates into a gas) antibiotic which kills other fungi.