Ethanol production by Escherichia coli strains co-expressing Zymomonas PDC and ADH genes
AssigneeUniversity of Florida
InventorsLonnie O. Ingram, Tyrrell Conway, Flavio Alterthum
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A novel operon and plasmids comprising genes which code for the alcohol dehydrogenase and pyruvate decarboxylase activities of Zymomonas mobilis are described. Also disclosed are methods for increasing the growth of microorganisms or eukaryotic cells and methods for reducing the accumulation of undesirable metabolic products in the growth medium of microorganisms or cells.
Claims7
An Escherichia coli, which has been transformed with Zymomonas mobilis genes coding for alcohol dehydrogenase and pyruvate decarboxylase wherein said genes are expressed at sufficient levels to confer upon said Escherichia coli transformant the ability to produce ethanol as a fermentation product.
A method for the production of ethanol, said method comprising transforming an Escherichia coli with Zymomonas mobilis genes coding for pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase wherein said genes are expressed by the transformed Escherichia coli at sufficient levels to result in the production of ethanol as a fermentation product when said Escherichia coli is grown in an appropriate medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.