Application of microbial genes to recalcitrant biomass utilization and environmental conservation.
Recent papers concerning the application of microbial genes to recalcitrant biomass utilization and environmental conservation are reviewed. Microbial genes have been integrated and expressed in plants and microorganisms. When cellulose-degrading enzyme genes are expressed in rice plants, the transgenic plants exhibit swollen cell walls which increases the digestibility of rice straw in the rumen. When genes encoding aromatic compound-degrading enzymes are expressed in plants, it is expected that aromatic compounds contaminating soil would be degraded during the growth of the transgenic plants. The former transgenic plants are utilized as feed and the latter for phytoremediation. Dockerin and cohesin interactions occurring in the cellulase complex, cellulosome, are applied to the construction of artificial enzyme complexes and protein purification by expressing the genes in transformed bacteria and/or silkworms, respectively. In the case of the forced expression of bacterial genes encoding chitinase and/or hydrogenase in the wild-type bacteria, chitin degradation and hydrogen gas production in the transformed bacteria occur at much higher rates than in the wild type.
Ohmiya
Kunio
K
Faculty of Bioresources, Mie University, 1515 Kamihama-cho, Tsu, Mie 514-8507, Japan. ohmiya@bio.mie-u.ac.jp
Sakka
Kazuo
K
Kimura
Tetsuya
T
Morimoto
Kenji
K