S548 Special Abstracts / Journal of Biotechnology 150S (2010) S1–S576

cally validated, PDB structures, SCOP classifications, Pfam families,if available). Clusters can contain distantly related proteins that bythis can be annotated with high confidence. Ultimately the methodanalyses a total of over 12 million protein sequences taken from988 genomes and UniProt release 13. In this version HMM modelsof those clusters that contain PDB templates are also provided tothe end-user for computing structural models of distantly relatedsequences.

doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2010.09.908

[S.16]

Synthetic biology approaches to carbon utilization ofCorynebacterium glutamicum

V.F. Wendisch

Chair of Genetics of Prokaryotes, Bielefeld University, Germany

Amino acid production by Corynebacterium glutamicumamounts to about 2.5 million tons per year and, thus, is a provenlarge-scale biotechnological process. The traditional productspectrum has recently been widened by metabolic engineeringapproaches, e.g. for production of 3-aminopropionic acid orethanol. The generally recognized as safe C. glutamicum has beenshown to be robust against a variety of inhibitory compounds andto be able to efficiently co-utilize different carbon source mixtures.The characterization of genetic control mechanisms of carbonmetabolism, which are distinct from those of the model bacteriaE. coli and B. substilis, enabled strain development for improvedcarbon substrate utilization. In addition, pathways for access tonew carbon sources have been engineered, e.g. for efficient use ofglycerol, which arises in large quantities in the biodiesel processas major by-product of plant seed oil transesterification withmethanol. Progress and future challenges of synthetic biologyapproaches to C. glutamicum as platform for the production of finechemicals will be discussed.

doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2010.09.909

[S.17]

Development of a comprehensive dynamic model for thefermentative production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) withtailor-made properties

G. Penloglou 1,2, Ch. Chatzidoukas 2, S. Parouti 2, C.Kiparissides 1,2,∗

1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessa-loniki, Greece2 Chemical Process Engineering Research Institute, Centre for Researchand Technology Hellas6th klm. Charilaou-Thermi Road, P.O. Box6036157001, Thermi, Thessaloniki, GreeceKeywords: Alcaligenes latus; Biopolymers; Molecular weight dis-tribution; Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)

In view of the innumerable applications of plastics, biopoly-mers are urgently needed so that the adverse environmental effectsof conventional plastics can be ameliorated (Reddy et al., 2003).Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable polymers, pro-duced intracellularly by various bacteria from renewable sources(Madison and Huisman, 1999). Depending on their molecular char-acteristics various PHA grades with desired end-use properties canbe produced (Spitalsky and Bleha, 2004).

In spite of the potential of PHAs, their introduction to the world-wide market is currently limited due to their increased productioncost compared to their synthetic alternatives (Philip et al., 2007).Therefore, there is a growing need for the development of novelmicrobial processes with reduced production cost (Khanna andSrivastava, 2005). To this end, advanced mathematical models canprovide the means to understand and control the biochemical phe-nomena, leading to the production of biopolymers with desirableproperties, in a competitive way.

In this work, an integrated metabolic/macroscopic kineticmodel for the dynamic simulation of the Poly(3-hydroxybutytrate)(PHB) production in Alcaligenes latus was developed. The pro-posed approach includes a realistic description of cells’ metabolism,accounting for the effects of the medium composition, the cultureaeration and the operating policy (batch/fed-batch). The modelpredicts the biomass growth, the key nutrients assimilation, theoxygen transfer/uptake rates, the PHB production rate and itsmolecular weight distribution (MWD).

The mathematical model development is assisted by a com-prehensive experimental study over the optimal PHB productiongiving emphasis on: (i) the assessment of key-process variables thatcontrol the PHB accumulation and its MWD and (ii) the investiga-tion of the impact of a simple fed-batch policy on the PHB yield.Analysis of the influence of the post-treatment conditions on theefficient polymer recovery and polymer MWD accomplishes thisstudy.

Among various reports focusing on the high-yield productionof PHB, the present study demonstrates a mathematical tool forthe design of a production strategy of different PHB grades withtailor-made properties, under optimized conditions.

References

C.S.K. Reddy, R. Ghai, Rashmi, V.C. Kalia, Bioresour. Technol. 2003, 87, 137.Madison, L.L., Huisman, G.W., 1999. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 63, 21.Spitalsky, Z., Bleha, T., 2004. Macromol. Biosci. 4, 601.Philip, S., Keshavarz, T., Roy, I., 2007. J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol. 82, 233.Khanna, S., Srivastava, A.K., 2005. Process Biochem. 40, 607.

doi:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2010.09.910

[S.18]

Systems biology characterization of engineered tomato fruitswith improved carotenoid content provides novel insights onthe interplay between pigment biosynthesis and post-harvestcharacteristics

Gianfranco Diretto 1,3,∗, Nicholas Schauer 2,3, Alisdair Fernie 2,3,Federico Scossa 1,3, Antonio Matas 3,4, Jocelyn Rose 3,4

1 Ente per le Nuove tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente (ENEA), CasacciaResearch Center00123 Roma, Italy, Italy2 eMax-Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlen-berg 114476 Golm, Germany, Germany3 cDept. of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853,United States4 dBoyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, New York 14853, United StatesKeywords: Tomato; Carotenoid; Systems biology; Gene ontology

Carotenoids are secondary metabolites involved, in animals, inthe prevention of several animal diseases including cancers andcardio-vascular pathologies. In plants, they play essential func-tions as photosynthetic pigments in leaves, secondary metabolitesin fruits and flowers, and hormone precursors. Here, we reporta global transcriptional, metabolomic and phenomic profiling oftransgenic “Golden” tomato fruits and potato tubers accumulat-