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 ...

A collection of Rhizobium etli promoters was isolated from a genomic DNA library constructed in the promoter-trap vector pBBMCS53, by their ability to drive the expression of a gusA reporter gene. Thirty-seven clones were selected, and their transcriptional start-sites were determined. The upstream sequence of these 37 start-sites, and the sequences of seven previously identified promoters were...

Citrus blast caused by bacterium Pseudomonas syringae is a very important disease of citrus occuring in many areas of the world, but with few data about genetic structure of the pathogen involved. Considering the above fact, this study reports genetic characterization of 43 P. syringae isolates obtained from plant tissue displaying citrus blast symptoms on mandarin (Citrus reticulata) in Monten...

We have identified a second RpoH homolog, RpoH(II), in the alpha-proteobacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Primary amino acid sequence comparisons demonstrate that R. sphaeroides RpoH(II) belongs to a phylogenetically distinct group with RpoH orthologs from alpha-proteobacteria that contain two rpoH genes. Like its previously identified paralog, RpoH(I), RpoH(II) is able to complement the temper...

The genetic basis of bacterial adaptation to a natural environment has been investigated in a highly successful Pseudomonas aeruginosa lineage (DK2) that evolved within the airways of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) for more than 35 y. During evolution in the CF airways, the DK2 lineage underwent substantial phenotypic changes, which correlated with temporal fixation of specific mutations in...

A total of 74 phenotypically identified presumptive motile Aeromonas isolates recovered from septicaemic freshwater ornamental fish in Sri Lanka were genetically characterized by sequencing of rpoD and gyrB genes. rpoD/gyrB phylogeny confirmed only 53 isolates as Aeromonas, among which A. veronii was the predominant species (79.2%), followed by A. hydrophila (7.5%), A. caviae (5.7%), A. jandaei...

Five rRNA operons (rrn) were found by hybridization in the genome of 'Brevibacterium lactofermentum' ATCC 13869 and Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032. 'B. lactofermentum' DSM 20412 differed from the other corynebacteria tested in showing six hybridizing BamHI bands. Two of the rrn operons (rrnD and rrnE) were located in a single cosmid. Sequencing of the rrnD operon showed that it contains ...

Escherichia coli contains seven rRNA operons, each consisting of the genes for three rRNAs (16S, 23S and 5S rRNA in this order) and one or two tRNA genes in the spacer between 16S and 23S rRNA genes and one or two tRNA genes in the 3' proximal region. All of these rRNA and tRNA genes are transcribed from two promoters, P1 and P2, into single large precursors that are afterward processed to indi...