Untersuchungen zur Aktivierung der Zellulosebiosynthese in Salmonella Typhimurium durch zyklisches-di-GMP

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Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on earth, as it is the key component of plant biomass. It is an important raw material used in many different industrial manufacturing processes. Although commercially almost only plant derived cellulose is used, unraveling the basic processes of cellulose biosynthesis in plants is complex due to the high number of genes involved. This project focuses on cellulose production in the bacterial organism Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium which contains only one cellulose biosynthesis operon and therefore a limited number of genes involved. Since binding of the small molecule cyclic-di-GMP to the cellulose synthase activates cellulose biosynthesis, experiments of this project aim to unravel the mechanism of activation. A combination of biochemical analysis and site-specific mutations of biosynthesis proteins will be used to assess the importance of various protein domains and motifs for protein specificity and the targeting process which might involve spatial localization of the cellulose synthase and its associated proteins. The findings of this project will not only impact on cellulose biosynthesis but also on other bacterial exopolysaccharide systems regulated by cyclic-di-GMP.