An ideal host: The search continues

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 40 KB
• Volume: 102
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-3592
• DOI: 10.1002/bit.22288

✦ Synopsis

Biofuels production has renewed the focus on the search for ideal host organisms that can efficiently ferment C5 and C6 sugars, major components of lignocellulosic biomass. However, in the absence of physiological and genomic information, there is need for rapid deduction of metabolic pathways to glean the metabolism and the effectiveness of the organism as a fuel-production host. Tang and co-workers have shown that in the complete absence of genome information, metabolite-profiling, enzyme assays and isotopomer flux analysis can be used effectively for the rapid deduction of fermentative pathways in a recently discovered thermophilic bacterium Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius M10EXG that can ferment both C5 and C6 sugars and can tolerate a concentration of up to 10% ethanol. They show that experimental analyses combined with in silico flux modeling can be used not only to map the maximum flux through specific pathways under various growth conditions but also determine pathways for modification to maximize fuel production.