Cell Aggregation and Aerobic Respiration Are Important for ZM4 Survival in an Aerobic Minimal Medium.

produces ethanol from glucose near the theoretical maximum yield, making it a potential alternative to the yeast for industrial ethanol production. A potentially useful industrial feature is the ability to form multicellular aggregates called flocs, which can settle quickly and exhibit higher resistance to harmful chemicals than single cells. While spontaneous floc-forming mutants have been described, little is known about the natural conditions that induce floc formation or about the genetic factors involved.

Pantothenate auxotrophy in Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 is due to a lack of aspartate decarboxylase activity.

The bacterium Zymomonas mobilis naturally produces ethanol at near theoretical maximum yields, making it of interest for industrial ethanol production. Zymomonas mobilis requires the vitamin pantothenate for growth. Here we characterized the genetic basis for the Z.

N2 gas is an effective fertilizer for bioethanol production by Zymomonas mobilis.

A nascent cellulosic ethanol industry is struggling to become cost-competitive against corn ethanol and gasoline. Millions of dollars are spent on nitrogen supplements to make up for the low nitrogen content of the cellulosic feedstock. Here we show for the first time to our knowledge that the ethanol-producing bacterium, Zymomonas mobilis, can use N2 gas in lieu of traditional nitrogen supplements.

Cluster J mycobacteriophages: intron splicing in capsid and tail genes.

Bacteriophages isolated on Mycobacterium smegmatis mc(2)155 represent many distinct genomes sharing little or no DNA sequence similarity. The genomes are architecturally mosaic and are replete with genes of unknown function. A new group of genomes sharing substantial nucleotide sequences constitute Cluster J.