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Microbiology

New insights into the control of DNA replication and cell division in Corynebacterium glutamicum, a biotechnologically important microorganism, could help to optimize the industrial production of amino acids.

07.06.2017

Excerpt from LMU press release of June 7, 2017:

Many forks make light work

The rod-shaped Gram-positive soil bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum plays an important role in biotechnology. As its species name indicates, C. glutamicum synthesizes glutamic acid (one of the 20 canonical amino acids found in proteins) in large quantities, and is used for large-scale production of this and many other amino acids. However, yields are constrained by the fact that, in comparison with bacteria like Escherichia coli, corynebacterial cultures grow relatively slowly. LMU microbiologist Professor Marc Bramkamp and his research team have now taken a closer look at C. glutamicum’s mode of growth and proliferation, and uncovered previously unknown aspects of these processes, which can be exploited to enhance its growth rate. mbio 2017

LMU press release