Figure 1From: Real-Time monitoring of intracellular wax ester metabolismOperating principle of the wax ester monitoring system in engineered A. baylyi ADP1. A) The bacterial luciferace LuxAB utilizes the specific intermediate in wax ester synthesis route, fatty aldehyde, as a substrate producing light and fatty acid molecule which is returned to the carbon cycle. Enzymatic steps involved in the natural lipid metabolism of ADP1 are as follows: 1 - Fatty acyl-CoA is reduced to corresponding fatty aldehyde by the fatty acyl-CoA reductase (acr1); 2 - Fatty aldehyde is reduced to corresponding fatty alcohol by an aldehyde reductase; 3 - Fatty alcohol is esterified with fatty acyl-CoA by WS/DGAT (wax-dgaT) forming a wax ester; 4 - Free fatty acid is recycled by acyl-CoA synthetases. B) A schematic presentation of the engineered strains Wab+ and Wab- against the wild type genotype. The gene cassette iluxAB_Cmr containing the genes luxAB and chloramphenicol resistance under constitutive promoter was used to replace a neutral gene poxB. In Wab-, acr1 is replaced with a gene cassette Kanr/tdk [16].Back to article page