The organic solvent tolerance of Escherichia coli was measured under conditions in which OmpF levels were controlled by various means as follows: alteration of NaCl concentration in the medium, transformation with a stress-responsive gene (marA, robA, or soxS), or disruption of the ompF gene. It was shown that solvent tolerance of E. coli did not depend upon OmpF levels in the membrane.

A time-course gene-expression profile was generated for Escherichia coli TK31 when it was exposed to an organic solvent mixture, and classified by fuzzy adaptive resonance theory (Fuzzy ART). It was found that the purR regulon plays an important role in the organic solvent tolerance (OST) of E. coli.

A variety of genes are involved in determining the level of organic solvent tolerance of Escherichia coli K-12. Gene ostA is one of the genes contributing to the level of organic solvent tolerance. This gene was cloned from an n-hexane-tolerant strain of E. coli, JA300. A JA300-based n-hexane-sensitive strain, OST4251, was converted to the n-hexane-tolerant phenotype by transformation with DNA ...

Using enrichment procedures, 45 organic solvent-tolerant lipase producer bacterial strains were screened from areas contaminated by oil and organic solvents. Among the strains, 15 isolates exhibited extreme stability toward organic solvents and high lipolytic activity. The NEB-1 isolate which was later identified as Pseudomonas sp. strain NEB-1 by biochemical tests and 16S rDNA gene sequence an...

The authors previously described srpABC, an operon involved in proton-dependent solvent efflux in the solvent-tolerant Pseudomonas putida S12. Recently, it was shown that organic solvents and not antibiotics induce this operon. In the present study, the authors characterize a new efflux pump, designated ArpABC, on the basis of two isolated chloramphenicol-sensitive transposon mutants. The arpAB...

BACKGROUND Escherichia coli has emerged as a promising platform microorganism to produce biofuels and fine chemicals of industrial interests. Certain obstacles however remain to be overcome, among which organic-solvent tolerance is a crucial one. RESULTS We used global transcription machinery engineering (gTME) to improve the organic-solvent tolerance (OST) of E. coli JM109. A mutant library ...

Pharmacodynamic tolerance is believed to involve homeostatic mechanisms initiated to restore normal neural function. Drosophila exposed to a sedating dose of an organic solvent, such as benzyl alcohol or ethanol, acquire tolerance to subsequent sedation by that solvent. The slo gene encodes BK-type Ca(2+)-activated K(+) channels and has been linked to alcohol- and organic solvent-induced behavi...

We previously reported that overexpression of the soxS or robA gene causes in several Escherichia coli strains the acquisition of higher organic solvent tolerance and also increased resistance to a number of antibiotics (H. Nakajima, K. Kobayashi, M. Kobayashi, H. Asako, and R. Aono, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61:2302-2307, 1995). Most E. coli strains cannot grow in the presence of cyclohexane. ...

Lipases are a group of enzymes naturally endowed with the property of performing reactions in aqueous as well as organic solvents. The esterification reactions using lipase(s) could be performed in water-restricted organic media as organic solvent(s) not only improve(s) the solubility of substrate and reactant in reaction mixture but also permit(s) the reaction in the reverse direction, and oft...