Transgenic microbes

Facciotti, D. Metz, J.G. Lassner, M. (1998) Polyketide synthesis graes of marine microbe and production of polyunsaturated fatty acids and PUFA-containing plant oils with transgenic plants. PCT Int. Appl. 10 Dec. to Calgene LLC Co) Chem. Abstr., 1999,130, 62050. 

Hipskind JD, Paiva NL. 2000. Constitutive accumulation of a resveratrol-glucoside in transgenic alfalfa increases resistance to Phoma medicaginis. Molec Plant Microbe Interact 13 551-562. 

Heuer, H., Kroppenstedt, R. M., Lottmann, J., and Smalla, K. (2002). Effects of T4-lysozyme release from transgenic potato roots on bacterial rhizosphere communities are negligible relative to natural factors. Appl. Environ. Microb. 68,1325-1335. 

Wang, Y., Nowak, G., Gulley, D., Hadwiger, L.A. and Fristensky B. (1999) Constitutive expression of pea defense gene DRR206 confers resistance to blackleg Leptosphaeria maculans) disease in transgenic canola (Brassica napus). Mol. Plant Microbe Interact., 12, 410-8. 

Research efforts are geared to developing oUs that meet changing food, feed, and chemical feedstock needs. Hundreds of fatty acids are produced in plant sources, and hundreds more are produced in organisms from microbes to mammals. Some of these would be of great value if they were available in suitable amounts from a crop source. The two general transgenic approaches used to develop such sources are as follows ... 

Many efforts have been made to synthesize high levels of trans-R using metabohc engineering in plants and microbes. There is abtmdant information about the trans-R content of transgenic plants, although trans-R levels were seen to be not very high (around 350 pg g DW). Only experiments with rolB transgenic callus lines of V. amurensis showed an enhanced production of trans-R (31.50 mg g DW ). 

Microalgal hydrocarbons are an example where molecular genetic improvements and transgenic expression can also be tested in the natural host or its close phylogenetic relatives (21). Each feedstock production and conversion system, whether based on plants, microbes, or chemistry, has its pros and cons, and there is no one universal platform for foreseeable future (22). Host-compound choices must therefore be taken on a case-by-case basis. Poly-B-hydroxyalkanoates as biodegradable polyesters are bacterial storage polymers and can be produced by fermentation on cheap starch hydrolysate with high volume and biomass yield (23). Nevertheless, commercialization of the compound as a bulk polymer so far has not been accomplished because the... 

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