Systems Level Study of a Novel Fast-Growing Cyanobacterial Strain for Next Generation Biofuel Production
- Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)
- Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
The overall objective of this project is to use an integrated systems biology approach to develop a fast growing cyanobacterial strain as a platform organism for photobiological production of advanced biofuels and other useful chemicals. Cyanobacteria are oxygenic photosynthetic microbes that use light and CO2 as feedstocks, and hence offer enormous promises for sustainable bioenergy production. One of the key issues in cyanobacterial biofuel production is the growth rates of these microbes. Compared to other oxygenic photosynthetic organisms such as plants and eukaryotic algae, many cyanobacterial strains have superior growth properties. However, they grow significantly slower than heterotrophic microbes such as E. coli and yeast that are commonly used in biofuel research. We have recently identified Synechococcus elongatus UTEX 2973, a unicellular cyanobacterium that has the ability of rapid photoautotrophic growth comparable to that of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this project, we will pursue a systems approach to develop Synechococcus 2973 as a versatile and useful model cyanobacterial host to be used by the bioenergy research community during the coming era. The knowledge base generated during this project will also be helpful for sustainable biofuel production by other cyanobacterial as well as eukaryotic photosynthetic hosts that use sunlight and CO2 as renewable feedstocks.
- Research Organization:
- Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States); Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0012722
- OSTI ID:
- 1756418
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-WASHU-0012722
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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