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US 7,968,321 B1Granted
Ethanol production by microorganisms
AssigneeJoule Unlimited, Inc.
InventorsBrian Green, Nikos Reppas, Dan Robertson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to methods and compositions for engineering photoautotrophic organisms to convert carbon dioxide and light into fatty acid esters and other molecules, including biofuels. The molecules are then secreted by the organism into a growth medium.
Claims11
A method for the biogenic production of ethanol, comprising:
- culturing an engineered cyanobacterium in a culture medium in the presence of light and CO2, wherein said cyanobacterium comprises a recombinant pyruvate decarboxylase gene and at least one recombinant alcohol dehydrogenase gene, wherein said recombinant pyruvate decarboxylase gene and at least one recombinant alcohol dehydrogenase gene belong to distinct operons wherein the expression of said recombinant alcohol dehydrogenase gene is increased relative to the expression of said recombinant pyruvate decarboxylase gene, and wherein the amount of ethanol released into said culture medium by said engineered organism is equal to or greater than 10 mg/L/hr.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.