Chapter 17, Problem 6CHI

 Zymomonas mobilis is a Gram-negative bacterium that is used to make ethanol on an industrial scale. There is great interest in enhancing and expanding this microbe industrial uses. This prompted a group at the University of Hong Kong to develop a new E. coli–Z. mobilis shu vector. To do so, they started with a plasmid naturally found in some Z. mobilis strains. What genes and gene elements might the researchers need to add in order to construct a successful shuttle plasmid? What genetic elements do you think were added to obtain high-level expression of heterologous genes? Finally, how do you think they determined the copy number of the resulting shuttle vector in E. coli and in Z. mobilis?

Read the original paper: So, L. Y., et al., 2014. pZM Derived shuttle vectors for heterologous protein express and proteomic applications in the ethanol-producing bacterium Zymomonas mobilis. BMC Microbiol. 14:68