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Journal of Bacteriology, May 2001, p. 2979-2988, Vol. 183, No. 10
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.10.2979-2988.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Engineering a Homo-Ethanol Pathway in
Escherichia coli: Increased Glycolytic Flux and Levels
of Expression of Glycolytic Genes during Xylose
Fermentation
Han
Tao,
Ramon
Gonzalez,
Alfredo
Martinez,
Maria
Rodriguez,
L. O.
Ingram,*
J. F.
Preston, and
K. T.
Shanmugam
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences,
Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida,
Gainesville, Florida 32611
Received 10 October 2000/Accepted 16 February 2001
Replacement of the native fermentation pathway in
Escherichia coli B with a homo-ethanol pathway from
Zymomonas mobilis (pdc and
adhB genes) resulted in a 30 to 50% increase in growth
rate and glycolytic flux during the anaerobic fermentation of xylose. Gene array analysis was used as a tool to investigate differences in
expression levels for the 30 genes involved in xylose catabolism in the
parent (strain B) and the engineered strain (KO11). Of the 4,290 total
open reading frames, only 8% were expressed at a significantly higher
level in KO11 (P < 0.05). In contrast, over half
of the 30 genes involved in the catabolism of xylose to pyruvate were
expressed at 1.5-fold- to 8-fold-higher levels in KO11. For 14 of the
30 genes, higher expression was statistically significant at the 95%
confidence level (xylAB, xylE, xylFG, xylR, rpiA, rpiB, pfkA,
fbaA, tpiA, gapA, pgk, and pykA) during active fermentation (6, 12, and 24 h). Values at single time points for only four of these genes (eno, fbaA, fbaB, and
talA) were higher in strain B than in KO11. The
relationship between changes in mRNA (cDNA) levels and changes in
specific activities was verified for two genes (xylA and
xylB) with good agreement. In KO11, expression levels
and activities were threefold higher than in strain B for xylose
isomerase (xylA) and twofold higher for xylulokinase
(xylB). Increased expression of genes involved in xylose
catabolism is proposed as the basis for the increase in growth rate and
glycolytic flux in ethanologenic KO11.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Box 110700, Gainesville, FL 32611. Phone: (352) 392-8176. Fax: (352) 846-0969. E-mail: ingram{at}ufl.edu.

Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Series no. R-07817.

Present address: Instituto de Biotecnologia, Universidad Nacional
Autonoma de Mexico, Cuernavaca, Mor. 62250,
Mexico.
Journal of Bacteriology, May 2001, p. 2979-2988, Vol. 183, No. 10
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.10.2979-2988.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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