Cell systems and methods for improving fatty acid synthesis by expression of dehydrogenases
AssigneeExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
InventorsRobert Christopher Brown, Jennifer Coppersmith, Prachee Prakash, Srividya Akella, Rekha Seshadri
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Abstract
The invention relates to methods for producing lipids such as fatty acid products in recombinant host cells engineered to express a non-native gene encoding a dehydrogenase. The recombinant microorganisms are able to proliferate at a higher rate as compared with microorganisms that do not express a non-native dehydrogenase gene, and cultures of microorganisms that are engineered for lipid production and that express a non-native dehydrogenase produce more lipid than cultures of control microorganisms that do not include a non-native dehydrogenase gene.
Claims42
A method of culturing a lipid-producing photosynthetic microorganism comprising:
- providing a culture of a recombinant photosynthetic microorganism that comprises a non-native gene encoding a dehydrogenase and at least one non-native gene encoding a thioesterase in a suitable culture medium under conditions in which the non-native gene encoding the dehydrogenase and the non-native gene encoding the thioesterase are expressed,
- wherein the culture produces a greater amount of the lipid than does a culture comprising a control microorganism identical in all respects except that it does not include the gene encoding a non-native dehydrogenase,
- further wherein the recombinant photosynthetic microorganism that comprises the non-native gene encoding a dehydrogenase has a higher growth and/or proliferation rate than the control microorganism that lacks the gene encoding the non-native dehydrogenase.
A recombinant photosynthetic microorganism comprising a first non-native gene encoding a dehydrogenase, wherein the photosynthetic microorganism further comprises at least a second non-native gene encoding a thioesterase;
- wherein the photosynthetic microorganism produces a lipid;
- further wherein the photosynthetic microorganism has a higher growth and/or proliferation rate than an otherwise identical microorganism that lacks the non-native gene encoding a dehydrogenase.
An expression cassette comprising a heterologous promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid molecule comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence having at least 65% identity to SEQ ID NO:29 and a nucleic acid sequence encoding a thioesterase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.