Genetic manipulations restored the growth fitness of reduced-genome Escherichia coli.

Microbes with smaller genomes would be better chassis for analysis, design, and improvement in the fields of metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and molecular breeding. To create an Escherichia coli strain with a smaller genome, we used a stepwise genome reduction approach. Beginning with strain MGF-01, which has a genome of 3.

A simple method for multiple modification of the Escherichia coli K-12 chromosome.

We developed a simple method of generating markerless deletions in the Escherichia coli chromosome. The method consists of two recombination events stimulated by lambda Red recombinase. The first recombination replaced a target region with a marker cassette and the second then eliminated the marker cassette.

Effects of lipoprotein overproduction on the induction of DegP (HtrA) involved in quality control in the Escherichia coli periplasm.

Recent biochemical examination has revealed the presence of at least 90 different lipoproteins in Escherichia coli. Among previously identified lipoproteins, only an outer membrane lipoprotein, NlpE, is known to induce expression of the degP gene upon its overproduction. The degP gene encodes a periplasmic protease, which is thought to be involved in the digestion of unfolded proteins, and is essential for growth at high temperatures.