Abstract
Isoprene is a naturally produced hydrocarbon emitted into
the atmosphere by green plants. It is also a constituent
of synthetic rubber and a potential biofuel. Microbial
production of isoprene can become a sustainable
alternative to the prevailing chemical production of
isoprene from petroleum. In this work, sequence homology
searches were conducted to find novel isoprene synthases.
Candidate sequences were functionally expressed in
Escherichia coli and the desired enzymes were identified
based on an isoprene production assay. The activity of
three enzymes was shown for the first time: expression of
the candidate genes from Ipomoea batatas, Mangifera
indica, and Elaeocarpus photiniifolius resulted in
isoprene formation. The Ipomoea batatas isoprene synthase
produced the highest amounts of isoprene in all
experiments, exceeding the isoprene levels obtained by
the previously known Populus alba and Pueraria montana
isoprene synthases that were studied in parallel as
controls.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 153 -162 |
| Journal | Metabolic Engineering |
| Volume | 31 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- isoprenoid
- terpene
- genome mining
- homology-based screening
