Genetic Tools for the Industrially Promising Methanotroph Methylomicrobium buryatense
Aerobic methanotrophs oxidize methane at ambient temperatures and pressures and are therefore attractive systems for methane-based bioconversions. In this work, we developed and validated genetic tools for Methylomicrobium buryatense, a haloalkaliphilic gammaproteobacterial (type I) methanotroph. M. buryatense was isolated directly on natural gas and grows robustly in pure culture with a 3-h doubling time, enabling rapid genetic manipulation compared to many other methanotrophic species. As a proof of concept, we used a sucrose counterselection system to eliminate glycogen production in M. buryatense by constructing unmarked deletions in two redundant glycogen synthase genes. We also selected for a more genetically tractable variant strain that can be conjugated with small incompatibility group P (IncP)-based broad-host-range vectors and determined that this capability is due to loss of the native plasmid. These tools make M. buryatense a promising model system for studying aerobic methanotroph physiology and enable metabolic engineering in this bacterium for industrial biocatalysis of methane.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AR0000350
- OSTI ID:
- 1211474
- Journal Information:
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 81, Issue 5; ISSN 0099-2240
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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