Metabolic Engineering of Escherichia Coli for Sustainable Production of Aromatic Compounds
Prof. Guillermo Gosset
Professor
Among chemical compounds, the aromatics play an important role in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries. Current manufacturing methods for this class of compounds are based mostly on chemical synthesis using precursors derived from petroleum. An alternative to the production schemes currently in use is the microbial synthesis using renewable resources as starting materials. A challenge in this effort is to develop strains displaying high productivity and yield in product formation. We have applied the tools of metabolic engineering for the generation and improvement of Escherichia coli as a host for the synthesis of several aromatic compounds. Our efforts have focused mostly on modifying the phosphotransferase transport system in order to increase availability of precursors for the aromatic pathways. These efforts have enabled the generation of E. coli strains for the high-yield production of phenylalanine, tyrosine, anthranilate. L-DOPA and melanin.
Biographical Information
Prof. Gosset obtained his Ph.D. in Biotechnology from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1993. He is currently a Scientist at the Instituto de Biotecnología. His area of research is related to the study of microbial physiology and the application of metabolic pathway engineering to the development of microbial production strains. He has a total of 103 publications in journals and books and these works have been cited 1400 times. In 2005 he became a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and a Senior Editor of the “Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology."