Expression of dehydratase domains from a polyunsaturated fatty acid synthase increases the production of fatty acids in Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: Increasing the production of fatty acids by microbial fermentation remains an important step toward the generation of biodiesel and other portable liquid fuels. In this work, we report an Escherichia coli strain engineered to overexpress a fragment consisting of four dehydratase domains from the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) synthase enzyme complex from the deep-sea bacterium, Photobacterium profundum. The DH1-DH2-UMA enzyme fragment was excised from its natural context within a multi-enzyme PKS and expressed as a stand-alone protein. Fatty acids were extracted from the cell pellet, esterified with methanol and quantified by GC-MS analysis. Results show that the E. coli strain expressing the DH tetradomain fragment was capable of producing up to a 5-fold increase (80.31 mg total FA/L c

SUBMITTER: Oyola-Robles D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3894691 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature