Gene manipulation in the Mucorales fungus Rhizopus oryzae using TALENs with exonuclease overexpression.

The Mucorales fungal genus Rhizopus is used for the industrial production of organic acids, enzymes and fermented foods. The metabolic engineering efficiency of Rhizopus could be improved using gene manipulation; however, exogenous DNA rarely integrates into the host genome. Consequently, a genetic tool for Mucorales fungi needs to be developed.

Dependence of swarming in Escherichia coli K-12 on spermidine and the spermidine importer.

In a previous work, it was observed that the swarming of polyamine-deficient Proteus mirabilis (speB::sm) was severely inhibited on Luria-Bertani (LB) swarming plates (LBSw) (LB, 0.5% glucose, 0.5% agar), and it was clarified that extracellular putrescine was important as a signaling molecule for the induction of swarming in P.

The putrescine Importer PuuP of Escherichia coli K-12.

The Puu pathway is a putrescine utilization pathway involving gamma-glutamyl intermediates. The genes encoding the enzymes of the Puu pathway form a gene cluster, the puu gene cluster, and puuP is one of the genes in this cluster. In Escherichia coli, three putrescine importers, PotFGHI, PotABCD, and PotE, were discovered in the 1990s and have been studied; however, PuuP had not been discovered previously.

gamma-Glutamylputrescine synthetase in the putrescine utilization pathway of Escherichia coli K-12.

Glutamate-putrescine ligase (gamma-glutamylputrescine synthetase, PuuA, EC 6.3.1.