Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius is a Gram-positive thermophilic eubacterium (45-70‰) that has the ability to convert pre-treated lignocellulosic material LCM into ethanol. This organism has been genetically engineered such that its yield of ethanol production is in excess of 90% of the theoretical maximum [38]. There remains considerable scope to develop G.thermoglucosidasius to produce alternative fuels and chemicals of industrial importance. For such a useful bacterium the understanding of the global metabolism remains poorly characterised. To gain a better insight into the metabolic pathways and capabilities of G. thermoglucosidasius a bottom-up approach to construct a comprehensive metabolic model of the organism was applied. The model was build from manually annotated genome and incorporates data from wet lab experiments for accurate in silico analyses. The model simulations has highlighted a potential experimental design for the in silico production of succinate and butane-2,3-diol. PathwayBooster is also introduced in this study as a tool for curating metabolic pathways. The methodology is based on the assumption that the core metabolic capabilities are shared among evolutionarily closely related species [80]. This approach led to the further analysis of members of the genus Geobacillus with respect to their core metabolic capabilities, genome re-arrangements and shared unique features. Theoretical route for the biosynthesis of Vitamin B12 is presented here, which is novel to the canonical aerobic and anaerobic pathways known to date and ubiquitous amongst Geobacillus spp. The analysis of the gene assignment for this bacterium has highlighted the presence of NADP-dependent GAPDH. The theoretical function of this novel and previously uncategorised enzyme in the genus Geobacillus has been confirmed through enzymatic assays.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:690738 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Lisowska, Beata |
| Contributors | Leak, David |
| Publisher | University of Bath |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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