Microbial strain improvement for organosulfur removal from coal. [Quarterly] technical report, March 1, 1993--May 31, 1993
- Inst. of Gas Technology, Chicago, IL (United States)
IGT has developed a microbial culture Rhodococcus rhodochrous, designated as IGTS8, that is of specifically cleaving carbon-sulfur bonds in a range of organosulfur model compounds and is capable of removing organic sulfur from coal and petroleum without significantly sacrificing the calorific value of the fuel. Although IGTS8 possesses the ability to specifically remove organic sulfur from coal, a major research need is to develop improved strains of microorganisms that possess higher levels of desulfurization activity and therefore permit favorable biodesulfurization process conditions. During the past quarter, promoter probe vectors thought to possess promoter inserts were isolated. Two new promoter probe vectors were constructed: pRCAT2; which is pRAT1 (second quarterly report) with the BamHI site removed, and pRCAT3; which is pRCAT2 with a synthetic oligonucleotide inserted at the HindIII site that will allow a wider range of restriction fragments to be examined for promoter activity including the fragments from the twenty mutants isolated from the Rhodococcus strains exhibiting increased resistance to chloramphenicol. Sequence analysis of six of these mutants has been initiated, computer comparisons made, and base change confirmation is in progress. As research to isolate strong Rhodococcus promoters is the goal, the promoter for the 16S ribosomal RNA structural gene is a good candidate for a strong promoter based on analyses of the 16S RNA gene in other species. Since the sequence of the 16S RNA gene is well conserved among species, straightforward techniques are available to isolate the promoter and such efforts are in progress.
- Research Organization:
- Illinois Dept. of Energy and Natural Resources, Springfield, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC22-92PC92521
- OSTI ID:
- 10176075
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/PC/92521-T38; ON: DE93019788
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: [1993]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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