Isoprene Production in Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis via Heterologous Expression

GÖTTINGEN, Germany - April 20, 2018 - PRLog -- Gomaa et al. present in a recent publication (AMB Expr (2017) 7: 161.) a Bacillus spp. cell factory for enhanced production of the volatile hydrocarbon isoprene. To accomplish this, the Kudzu isoprene synthase (kIspS) gene has been heterologously expressed in Bacillus subtilis DSM 402 and Bacillus licheniformis DSM 13 using the pHT01 vector (available at MoBiTec).

The highest isoprene production was observed by recombinant B. subtilis harboring the pHT01-kIspS plasmid. They also reported for the first time of optimized isoprene production in B. licheniformis. However, recombinant B. licheniformis showed less isoprene production compared with B. subtilis. Therefore, recombinant B. subtilis is considered as a versatile host for heterologous production of isoprene.

While the B. subtilis cell factory was shown to be able to produce 1434.3 μg isoprene/L, a comparable system based on E. coli only produced isoprene amounts of up to 10 μg/L.

According to the authors it can be concluded from the obtained results that recombinant B. subtilis is a better host than B. licheniformis and E. coli for expressing isoprene and is considered as a versatile host for heterologous production of isoprene. They also recommended to give in future research more attention to synthetic biology as well as substrate utilization pathways as that would aid enzyme optimization and production improvement.

For details on the described B. subtilis gene expression vector pHT01 or further vectors and B. subtilis host strains visit www.mobitec.com or contact info@mobitec.com .

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