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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.01237-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Metabolically Engineered Bacteria for Enhanced Phytochelatin Production and Cadmium Accumulation

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering; and Cell Molecular & Developmental Biology program, University of California, Riverside CA 92521

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: wilfred{at}engr.ucr.edu.

	Abstract

Phytochelatins (PCs) with good binding affinities for a wide range of heavy metals were exploited to develop microbial sorbents for cadmium removal. Phytochelatin synthase from Schizosaccharomyces pombe (SpPCS) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli, resulting in PC synthesis and 7.5 times higher Cd accumulation. Co-expression of a feedback desensitized g-glutamylcysteine synthetase (GshI*) increased the supply of the PC precursor glutathione, resulting in 10- and 2-fold further increase in PC production and Cd accumulation, respectively. A Cd transporter MntA was co-expressed with SpPCS and GshI* to improve Cd uptake, resulting in 1.5-fold further increase in Cd accumulation. The level of Cd accumulation (31.6 µmol/g dry cell weight) is more than 25-fold higher than the control strain.

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