Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Cosenzae myxofaciens is a bacterium strongly related to other Proteus species, such as P.mirabilis.x000D
C.myxofaciens is a strain of industrial importance, mostly for its ability to produce large quantities of cellulosex000D
in a short time period. The cellulose produced by this bacterium is of higher purity than that obtained fromx000D
plant sources, which requires further treatments to remove hemicellulose and lignin. In addition, increasedx000D
demand for plant-based cellulose will ultimately lead to deforestation and other environmental concerns. Thex000D
production of bacterial cellulose overcomes these problems, as bacteria can be grown in large quantities usingx000D
simple carbon sources, including various types of industrial wastes and other by-products. Bacterial cellulosex000D
is currently used by the electronic, food and biomedical industries. Traditionally, bacterial cellulose has beenx000D
produced by Gluconeoacetobacter xylinus, a bacteria which requires oxygen to grow. C.myxofaciens has beenx000D
recently revealed to be a better candidate for cellulose production, as this bacteria can grow in both thex000D
presence and absence of oxygen, making it more suitable for growth in large-scale industrial fermentors. Thex000D
aim of this proposal is to develop molecular genetics tools to manipulate this organism to better understand itsx000D
regulation of cellulose biosynthesis, with the ultimate goal of developing safe, stable, cellulose-overproducingx000D
strains for industrial applications.