From Symbiosis to Methanotrophy: Diverse Functions in Rhizobiales

自1995年以来，我们的NSERC发现计划一直围绕苜蓿中华根瘤菌（Sinorhizobium meliloti）展开。这是我们实验室所有其他工作的基础。有了这个建议，我们将继续在S。苜蓿，调查根瘤感染的遗传控制，也调节之间的联系，这是主要的细胞内碳库，和氮代谢的代谢。我们还将把我们的研究扩展到根瘤菌目的另一个成员，发孢甲基弯菌菌株OB3b，我们几年前就开始研究了。该菌株是甲烷营养菌，其具有有限的碳利用能力，仅限于C1化合物，如甲烷和甲醇。我们将调查的作用，聚羟基丁酸在甲烷氧化生长，并开始研究对定义最小的甲烷氧化基因组。工作在M。毛孢酵母的发现将导致这一重要甲烷营养菌的基因组工程方法的开发和完善，为开发用于将甲烷转化为高价值生物产品的专门菌株铺平道路，并提供对甲烷营养的遗传和代谢要求的深入了解。

Our NSERC Discovery program has revolved around Sinorhizobium meliloti, the nitrogen fixing symbiont of alfalfa, since 1995. This has served as the foundation for all other work in our lab. With this proposal, we are continuing to work in S. meliloti, investigating genetic control of root nodule infection, and also regulatory links between metabolism of PHB, which is the major intracellular carbon store, and nitrogen metabolism. We will also extend our research to another member of the order Rhizobiales, Methylosinus trichosporium strain OB3b, which we started working on a few years ago. This strain is a methanotroph, which has a restricted carbon utilization capability, limited to C1 compounds such as methane and methanol. We will investigate the role of PHB in methanotrophic growth, and initiate research towards defining the minimal methanotrophic genome. The work in M. trichosporium will result in the development and refinement of genome engineering methods for this important methanotroph, pave the way for development of specialized strains for the conversion of methane to high value bioproducts, and provide insight into the genetic and metabolic requirements for methanotrophy.