ORCID
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7709-1826
Date of Award
Winter 1-15-2021
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
The heavy reliance of the petroleum industry for raw material and the rising atmospheric CO2 caused by this reliance have driven the research and development of sustainable alternatives. Microbial production of chemicals, such as fuel and plastic, has been viewed as a feasible method. The wide selection of substrates by microbes enables them to produce chemicals using naturally abundant material or industrial waste, such as CO2, making the production sustainable. Compared to the model organisms such as Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, many non-model organisms have a broader selection for carbon, electron, and nitrogen sources, making them great candidates for sustainable bioproduction. Furthermore, these non-model organisms can often naturally produce chemicals that cannot be naturally synthesized by model organisms. Thus, employ non-model organisms for sustainable bioproduction is promising. However, unlike the model organisms, the less studied non-model organisms suffer from lacking efficient genome engineering tools, which is crucial for achieving high production in any organism. In this dissertation, a metabolic versatile purple non-sulfur gram-negative bacterium, Rhodopseudomonas Palustris TIE-1 (TIE-1), was engineered for n-butanol production using just CO2, N2, solar panel-generated electricity, and light, with high electrical energy conversion efficiency. Three different mutants and ten distinct culture conditions were tested for n-butanol production. Furthermore, we developed a rapid and efficient phage integration system for inserting genes into the TIE-1 genome. The findings in this dissertation showed that TIE-1 is an attractive microbial chassis for sustainable bioproduction.
Language
English (en)
Chair
Arpita A. Bose
Committee Members
Yinjie Y. Tang, Marcus M. Foston, Tae Seok T. Moon, Lon L. Chubiz,