What is it about?
Cells have natural mechanisms to uncouple growth from metabolism. Harnessing these pathways and enzymes under certain conditions can result in increased rate of bioproduct formation without necessarily sacrificing growth kinetics. We have demonstrated this principle using methane-producing archaea.
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Why is it important?
Methane-producing archaea are natural organisms that grow by producing methane gas that is harvested from anaerobic bioreactors and used as renewable energy for electricity, heat, and transportation fuel in nearly every municipality. Furthermore, the principle of selective growth/metabolism uncoupling could theoretically be applied to any other organism for production of food, energy, and renewable chemicals.
Perspectives
Studying unique microbes (such as methane-producing archaea and others) that thrive under extreme thermodynamically and/or kinetically-limited conditions is important for understanding how biology is evolving towards maximum growth and metabolic efficiency. These organisms provide "design blueprints" and "rules" that can be translated to other biological systems.
Dr Nicole R Buan
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rerouting Cellular Electron Flux To Increase the Rate of Biological Methane Production, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2015, ASM Journals,
DOI: 10.1128/aem.01162-15.
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