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Ethanol production in actinomycetes after expression of synthetic adhB and pdc

by Uwe Hardter

Abstract: Streptomyces strains are producing many important secondary metabolites, in many cases used as pharmaceuti-cal drugs. Though the usage of these bacteria for the production of fuel has never been described. We could show, that the expression of two artificial ethanologenic genes of Zymomonas mobilis in different actinomycetes strains resulted in the production of ethanol. The synthetic genes adhB and pdc encoding an alcohol dehydrogenase and a pyruvate decarboxy-lase, respectively, were expressed in eight different Streptomyces strains. Best production was obtained using Streptomy-ces coelicolor A3(2) harboring both genes. By variation of the cultivation conditions, the amount of ethanol produced by the strain could be increased up to 2.6 g/l