Functional analyses of cellulase genes in multicellular microbe and application to a new technology

纤维素是细胞黏菌盘基网柄菌细胞壁的主要成分。它具有纤维素合成酶基因，其功能对正常的形态发生很重要。在本项目中，我们重点研究了纤维素酶催化纤维素酶的基因，克隆了几个纤维素酶基因，并研究了它们对纤维素酶的形态发生和纤维素酶活性的影响。我们发现纤维素酶中的纤维二酸水解酶(CbhA)基因的失活会影响细胞的形态发生。此外，多种纤维素酶可能协同作用，可能是作为一个纤维素体，导致纤维素酶活性的急剧增加。这表明网柄网柄菌是一种利用纤维素生产生物乙醇的有用生物。

Cellulose is a major component of the cell wall for cellular slime mould, Dictyostelium discoideum. It posses a cellulose synthetase gene and its function is important for normal morphogenesis. In this project, we focused on the cellulase genes catalyzing cellulose hydrolysis, cloned several of them and investigated the effects on morphogenesis as well as cellulose hydrolyzing activity. We showed inactivation of cellobiohydrolase(cbhA) gene, one of cellulase, by gene disruption affected morphogenesis. In addition, multiple Dictyostelium cellulases might act synergistically, possibly as a cellulosome, resulted in drastic increase of cellulose hydrolyzing activity. This implies Dictyostelium is a useful organism to produce bioethanol from cellulose.