For Immediate Release:
November 20, 2016
Contact Information:
Tom Manning, Director of Marketing Communications
Telephone: +1.630.256.7527, ext. 103
E-mail: tmanning@slas.org
CHICAGO – An original report published in the December 2015 issue of the Journal of Laboratory Automation
(JALA) demonstrates the feasibility of a yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) containing a multi-gene cassette as a stable protein expression system in yeast.
Authored by a team of researchers led by Stephen R. Hughes, PhD, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),
Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR), Renewable
Product Technology Research Unit, Peoria, IL, the report reflects the culmination of 12 years of research toward improving energy security and achieving sustainable biofuel production. The result is a one-step automated platform for introduction of multiple genes to enhance biomass utilization by industrial microbial biocatalysts.
Global concerns have accelerated the development of renewable energy sources such as lignocellulosic biomass, and economical biomass conversion into biofuels and bioproducts will require utilization of both xylose and glucose. Extensive research efforts using innovative genetic engineering approaches have improved xylose utilization by the glucose-fermenting industrial yeast S. cerevisiae, but no strain has yet been reported to ferment xylose as efficiently as glucose.
The report describes a novel assembly process suitable for use on an automated platform to produce a yeast synthetic chromosome containing a multi-gene cassette for expression of enzymes to enhance xylose utilization when stably transformed into Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
The project involved designing a three-plasmid yeast expression system based on LifeSensors’ SUMO vector set to provide high expression levels of three genes simultaneously. A multi-gene cassette was obtained by PCR amplification from these plasmids. To produce the YAC, the SUMO-tagged multi-gene construct was ligated to two YAC4 fragments or “arms” from restriction enzyme digestion of pYAC4. The YAC was stably introduced into a yeast strain without affecting the integrity of the host strain.
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The assembly and transformation processes are designed for use in an automated format, and the system provides a potential synthetic biology platform for one-step construction of a YAC containing multiple genes to further improve industrial yeast strains for sustainable production of biofuels and high-value coproducts from biomass. The YAC multi-gene cassette can incorporate large DNA inserts from any source, including genes for an entire metabolic pathway, novel genes identified using genome-wide transcription analysis, genes from strains naturally utilizing xylose, or genes for high-value bioproducts.
This work was also supported by a unique collaboration with Colombian scientists from Cenicafé interested in treatment of agricultural waste biomass to prevent ecological damage.
Hughes talks more about his team’s groundbreaking achievements in a JALA Podcast at http://jla.sagepub.com/site/misc/Index/JALA_Podcasts.xhtml
.
JALA is one of two MEDLINE-indexed scientific journals published by the Society for Laboratory Automation and
Screening (SLAS). Visit JALA Online at jla.sagepub.com. For more information about SLAS and its journals, visit www.slas.org/jala-jbs.
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The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) is an international community of more than 15,000 individual scientists, engineers, researchers, technologists and others from academic, government and commercial laboratories. The SLAS mission is to be the preeminent global organization providing forums for education and information exchange and to encourage the study of, and improve the practice of life sciences
R&D. For more information, visit www.SLAS.org.
SLAS publishes two internationally recognized, MEDLINE-indexed journals, now in their 20 th year of publication.
The Journal of Laboratory Automation (JALA) and Journal of Biomolecular Screening (JBS) uniquely serve laboratory science and technology professionals who work primarily in life sciences R&D. Together, JALA and JBS address the full spectrum of issues that are mission-critical to this important audience, enabling scientific research teams to gain scientific insights, increase productivity, elevate data quality, reduce lab process cycle times and enable experimentation that otherwise would be impossible.
Specifically, JALA explores ways in which scientists adapt advancements in technology for scientific exploration and experimentation. In direct relation to this, JBS reports how scientists use adapted technology to pursue new therapeutics for unmet medical needs, including assay development, identification of chemical probes and target identification and validation in general.
Journal of Biomolecular Screening (JBS): 2014 Impact Factor 2.423. Editor-in-Chief Robert M. Campbell, Ph.D., Eli
Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN (USA).
Journal of Laboratory Automation (JALA): 2014 Impact Factor 1.879. Editor-in-Chief Edward Kai-Hua Chow,
Ph.D., National University of Singapore (Singapore).