Identification and characterisation of the cell surface and enzymatic barriers to plasmid transformation in Corynebacterium glutamicum and related species

Non-pathogenic corynebacteria including Corynebacterium glutamicum, Brevibacterium flavum, and B. lactofermentum have been used traditionally for industrial production of amino acids. Recently, these strains have been also studied using molecular biology or recombinant DNA approaches. However, a major early limitation in the application of this technology was poor transformation efficiency due to the presence of barriers which prevented entry or survival of incoming DNA. These barriers are both physical (cell surface structures) and enzymatic (restriction and modification) barriers. The research described in this thesis involved investigating the nature of both the physical and enzymatic barriers, includings: (i) determining the effect of the presence of glycine and/or isonicotinic acid hydrazide (INH) and resulting lipid profiles (mycotic acids and fatty acids) of several strains of corynebacteria. (ii) examining the enzymatic barriers to transformation of these corynebacteria with specific reference to methyltransferase (MTase) activity and the sites of methylation.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Victoria University of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1998

Author dc:creator

• Jang, Ki-Hyo

• 0601 Biochemistry and Cell Biology
• School of Engineering and Science

Language dc:language

en