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Published on: October 2, 2012
Carbon catabolite repression in Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum
Vasiliki Tsakraklides1, A Joe Shaw, Bethany B Miller
1Mascoma Corporation, 67 Etna Road, Suite 300, New Hampshire, 03766, Lebanon. cherring@mascoma.com.
Background:
The thermophilic anaerobe Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum is capable of directly fermenting xylan and the biomass-derived sugars glucose, cellobiose, xylose, mannose, galactose and arabinose. It has been metabolically engineered and developed as a biocatalyst for the production of ethanol.
Results:
We report the initial characterization of the carbon catabolite repression system in this organism. We find that sugar metabolism in T. saccharolyticum is regulated by histidine-containing protein HPr. We describe a mutation in HPr, His15Asp, that leads to derepression of less-favored carbon source utilization.
Conclusion:
Co-utilization of sugars can be achieved by mutation of HPr in T. saccharolyticum. Further manipulation of CCR in this organism will be instrumental in achieving complete and rapid conversion of all available sugars to ethanol.
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