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Updated: Apr 11, 2026

Characterization of Membrane Transporters by Heterologous Expression in E. coli and Production of Membrane Vesicles
Published on: December 31, 2019
Getting pumped: membrane efflux transporters for enhanced biomolecule production
Sergey Boyarskiy1, Danielle Tullman-Ercek2
1Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley and UCSF, 306 Stanley Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California Berkeley, 201 Gilman Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.
Abstract:
Small molecule production in microbial hosts is limited by the accumulation of the product inside the cell. Efflux transporters show promise as a solution to removal of the often-toxic products. Recent advances in transporter identification through expression profiling, heterologous expression, and knockout studies have identified transporters capable of secreting compounds of biotechnological interest. In addition, engineering of well-studied transporters has shown that substrate specificity in these transporters is malleable. Future work in identification, engineering, and expression of small molecule exporters can be instrumental in expanding the biocatalysis portfolio.
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