Understanding and optimizing free fatty acid production in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Yi Ern Cheah1, Christie Peebles1

1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Colorado State University

1370 Campus Delivery

Fort Collins, CO 80523-1370

Phone: 970-491-5252

Fax: 970-491-7369 ycheah@engr.colostate.edu

Cyanobacteria are attractive systems for metabolic engineering due to the relative ease of genetic manipulation and their potential of producing a variety of valuable molecules directly from carbon dioxide. So far, engineering pathways in cyanobacteria has been a challenge due to our limited understanding of the function and regulation of their genetic components. On- going research in our lab focusses on the development and characterization of molecular biology tools primarily for use in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.
As a proof of concept, we applied our knowledge to manipulate the fatty acid synthesis pathway of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Based on what we know about fatty acid synthesis in E.coli, we constructed a synthetic metabolic sink by expressing genes leading to free fatty acid (FFA) production in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. We then use this strain as a platform to demonstrate the use of our metabolic tools to study and optimize for FFA production. This presentation will focus on our research efforts to date.