Cellulosic ethanol is produced from yeast fermentation of lignocellulose. However, yeast is unable to utilize all components of the lignocellulose. To improve the production of this next-generation biofuel, the microorganism yeast is replaced with E. coli. This experiment aims to manipulate E. coli to enhance its organismal function in biofuel production. Currently, E.coli is not tolerant to lignin byproducts, such as vanillin and phenol, which can be found in the processed biomass. In this experiment, the lignin byproduct cinnamaldehyde was tested as the model toxin. Prior to genetic modification, E. coli could only withstand ~0.5 mM cinnamaldehyde concentrations. During this experiment, E. coli is transformed with a metagenomic library containing genes isolated from Yellowstone organisms and subjected to an enrichment cycle, and some cinnamaldehyde resistance was developed. After transformation, E. coli was able to grow in greater cinnamaldehyde concentrations due to the presence of a gene that confers cinnamaldehyde resistance.

Genetic modification of <i>E. coli</i> for enhanced production of cellulosic biofuel

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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Genetic modification of E. coli for enhanced production of cellulosic biofuel