The acetan biosynthetic pathway in Acetobacter xylinum is an ideal model system for engineering novel bacterial polysaccharides. To genetically manipulate this pathway, an Acetobacter strain (CKE5), more susceptible to gene-transfer methodologies, was developed. A new gene, aceP, involved in acetan biosynthesis was identified, sequenced and shown to have homology at the amino acid level with β-D-glucosyl transferases from a number of different organisms. Disruption of aceP in strain CKE5 confirmed the function assigned above and was used to engineer a novel polysaccharide with a pentasaccharide repeat unit.
acetan, Acetobacter xylinum, AceP gene, EPS biosynthesis and novel EPS
NCBI PubMed ID: 1041127Publication DOI: 10.1099/13500872-145-6-1499Journal NLM ID: 0376646Publisher: Washington, DC: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers
Correspondence: annette.griffin@bbsrc.ac.uk
Institutions: Institute of Food Research,Norwich Laboratory,Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
Methods: genetic methods
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