ETHYLENE PRODUCTION FROM E. COLI

Abstract

Ethylene is one of the most important and commonly used chemicals. Production of ethylene from a renewable resource would greatly reduce the amount of petroleum used in chemical processing. This would be a great help to reducing green house gases.

There are several ways to produce ethylene from E. coli. One could modify the genome of the bacterium to naturally produce ethylene as a part of its growth cycle. Another method is to make the bacterium produce an enzyme that catalyzes a reaction to produce the desired product. This enzyme would generate ethylene from a compound the bacterium naturally produces. The use of the Ethylene Forming Enzyme from Pseudomonas syringae glycinea greatly simplifies the ethylene forming process.

The Ethylene Forming Enzyme was first isolated from Pseudomonas syringae glycinea (MAFF 302676 and MAFF 301683). It was then ligated into a plasmid and electrophorated into E. coli. Once the plasmid was in E.coli, the bacterium naturally produced and secreted ethylene gas as it grew.

Once the bacterium was able to produce ethylene, it was further modified to grow on corn stover. This allowed for ethylene production from a bio-waste feedstock. After corn stover growth was achieved the E. coli was further modified in an attempt to increase ethylene yield.