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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2000, p. 909-913, Vol. 66, No. 3
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Inactivation of Isocitrate Lyase Leads to Increased Production of Medium-Chain-Length Poly(3-Hydroxyalkanoates) in Pseudomonas putida

Stefan Klinke, Michael Dauner, George Scott, Birgit Kessler, and Bernard Witholt*

Institute of Biotechnology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland

Received 30 August 1999/Accepted 8 December 1999

Medium-chain-length (mcl) poly(3-hydroxyalkanoates) (PHAs) are storage polymers that are produced from various substrates and accumulate in Pseudomonas strains belonging to rRNA homology group I. In experiments aimed at increasing PHA production in Pseudomonas strains, we generated an mcl PHA-overproducing mutant of Pseudomonas putida KT2442 by transposon mutagenesis, in which the aceA gene was knocked out. This mutation inactivated the glyoxylate shunt and reduced the in vitro activity of isocitrate dehydrogenase, a rate-limiting enzyme of the citric acid cycle. The genotype of the mutant was confirmed by DNA sequencing, and the phenotype was confirmed by biochemical experiments. The aceA mutant was not able to grow on acetate as a sole carbon source due to disruption of the glyoxylate bypass and exhibited two- to fivefold lower isocitrate dehydrogenase activity than the wild type. During growth on gluconate, the difference between the mean PHA accumulation in the mutant and the mean PHA accumulation in the wild-type strain was 52%, which resulted in a significant increase in the amount of mcl PHA at the end of the exponential phase in the mutant P. putida KT217. On the basis of a stoichiometric flux analysis we predicted that knockout of the glyoxylate pathway in addition to reduced flux through isocitrate dehydrogenase should lead to increased flux into the fatty acid synthesis pathway. Therefore, enhanced carbon flow towards the fatty acid synthesis pathway increased the amount of mcl PHA that could be accumulated by the mutant.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Biotechnology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Hoenggerberg HPT, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland. Phone: 41-1-633 3286. Fax: 41-1-633 1051. E-mail: bw{at}biotech.biol.ethz.ch.


Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2000, p. 909-913, Vol. 66, No. 3
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.






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