Monday, August 13, 2012: 3:30 PM
Georgetown, Concourse Level (Washington Hilton)
Microbial conversion of abundant and sustainable lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels can significantly help to diversify transportation fuels. Known for its high specific glucose uptake rate, rapid catabolism and high ethanol yield, Z. mobilis has been engineered to efficiently use the second and third most abundant plant derived sugars, xylose and arabinose and convert them to ethanol at high yield. More recently, we have been applying the systems biology and genomic tools to investigate and improve its tolerance to inhibitors present in biomass hydrolysate obtained from acid pretreatment. With its capabilities for utilizing the biomass sugars, we asked a question - Can we redirect carbon to making other fuel molecules in addition to ethanol? Are there metabolic and energetic barriers to carrying out these processes at high yield? In this presentation I will present our recent progress in metabolic engineering of Z. mobilis for hydrocarbon fuels synthesis.