Project description:Methylorubrum extorquens AM1 is engineered to produce itaconic acid by heterologous expression of cis-aconitic acid decarboxylase. Mutation was also performed on phaR in Methylorubrum extorquens AM1, which regulate poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate accumulation, in attempt to increase carbon flux toward itaconic acid production. However, in our case, itaconic acid production by phaR mutant strain was not higher than that of the wildtype. Transcriptomic analysis was utilized in order to examine the cause for this phenomenon. RNA-seq analysis revealed that phaR mutation in the itaconic acid-producing strain might result in a complex regulatory rewiring at the gene expression level, which could cause a reduced resource flux toward ITA production. Also, RNA profiling gave a hint at the broad regulatory role of PhaR.
Project description:Dichloromethane (DCM, methylene chloride) is a toxic halogenated volatile organic compound massively used for industrial applications, and consequently often detected in the environment as a major pollutant. DCM biotransformation offers a sustainable decontamination strategy of polluted sites. Among methylotrophic bacteria able to use DCM as sole source of carbon and energy for growth, Methylorubrum extorquens DM4 (formerly named Methyobacterium extorquens) is a longstanding reference Alphaproteobacteria strain. Here, its primary transcriptome was obtained using a differential RNA-seq (dRNA-seq) approach to provide the first transcription start site (TSS) genome-wide landscape of a methylotroph using DCM.
Project description:We report a genetic variant of Methylorubrum extorquens AM1 that hyperaccumulates the heavy lanthanide gadolinium. Using RNA-seq transcriptomics we identified wide-spread metabolic and physiological changes in this strain and experimentally validate several of them, including increased gadolinium transport and storage in an intracellular compartment we name the lanthasome.
