JBEI Researchers Identify Trio of Bacterial Enzymes...

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By Green Car Congress on 06/18/2010 – 3:15 pm PDT

...for Biosynthesis of Hydrocarbon Fuels; Engineered E. Coli Produces Long-chain Alkenes

The bacterium Micrococcus luteus harbors a three-gene cluster that encodes for enzymes essential to the synthesis of alkenes. (Image courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) Click to enlarge.

Researchers with the US Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have identified a trio of bacterial enzymes that can catalyze key steps in the conversion of plant sugars into hydrocarbon compounds for the production of renewable transportation fuels.

Harry Beller, an environmental microbiologist who directs the Biofuels Pathways department for JBEI’s Fuels Synthesis Division, led a study in which a three-gene cluster from the bacterium Micrococcus luteus was introduced into the bacterium Escherichia coli. The enzymes produced by this trio of genes enabled the E. coli to synthesize from glucose long-chain alkene hydrocarbons, predominantly 27:3 and 29:3 (no. carbon atoms: no. C=C bonds).

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