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Marinobacter as a Model Organism for Wax Ester Accumulation in Bacteria

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Biogenesis of Fatty Acids, Lipids and Membranes

Part of the book series: Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology ((HHLM))

Abstract

Wax esters are derived from the esterification of a long-chain fatty alcohol with a fatty acid. Wax esters are a diverse type of neutral lipid that is utilized by all domains of life to serve a wide variety of functions. The model bacterium Marinobacter aquaeolei VT8 has become an ideal model organism for studying wax ester biosynthesis, as it naturally accumulates wax esters in addition to having many other desirable features. While the pathway of wax ester biosynthesis has been mostly elucidated, there are still potential gaps in our understanding of how the two independent pathways of fatty acid biosynthesis and wax ester biosynthesis are linked. M. aquaeolei VT8 has also become a primary source of a number of key enzymes from the wax ester biosynthesis pathway that are either studied in the laboratory for purposes of characterization or have been transferred to other model species for use in developing alternative biosynthetic routes to novel products. Studies of global transcriptional regulation during wax ester biosynthesis are also providing us with a view of how organisms that evolved to accumulate wax esters naturally could be used as a template to inform decisions as we attempt to move these pathways into foreign hosts. Understanding the in vivo flow of substrates through the wax ester biosynthesis from de novo fatty acid biosynthesis to the final wax ester product is a key requirement to improving biosynthetic approaches for producing wax esters.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation to B.M.B. (Award Numbers 0968781 and CBET-1437758). Further support was provided through generous start-up funds through the University of Minnesota.

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  1. Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Avenue, St. Paul, MN, 55108-6130, USA

    Carolann M. Knutson, Eric M. Lenneman & Brett M. Barney

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  1. Carolann M. Knutson
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  2. Eric M. Lenneman
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Correspondence to Brett M. Barney .

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  1. Centro de Ciencias Genomicas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Centro de Ciencias Genomicas, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

    Otto Geiger

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Knutson, C.M., Lenneman, E.M., Barney, B.M. (2017). Marinobacter as a Model Organism for Wax Ester Accumulation in Bacteria. In: Geiger, O. (eds) Biogenesis of Fatty Acids, Lipids and Membranes. Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43676-0_19-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43676-0_19-1

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