Liu Tiangang’s Collaborative Achievement Published by PNAS

Published:11-10-2011Author:Hu SijiaViews:826

New Breakthrough on Optimization of Fatty Acid Synthesis through Cooperation

between Wuhan University and Stanford University

Recently, Wuhan University and Stanford University scientists collaboratively publishred an article on a new breakthrough in optimizing fatty acid synthesis in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), an authoritative science and technology journal.

The research was a joint effort between WHU’s Prof. Liu Tiangang biosynthesis and new medicine discovery laboratory and Stanford University’s Professor Chaitan Kholsa’s laboratory. After first developing a cell-free system of fatty acid optimization in 2010, Profs. Liu Tiangang and Chaitan Kholsa further advanced their technique by developing a vitro recombination system by which the fatty acid synthetase of colon bacillus was optimized and analyzed through stability kinetics.

Fatty acids derived frommicroorganism are a potential substitute for fossil fuels and chemical materials. Though the research on fatty acid synthetase of colon bacillus is well developed, research concerning stability kinetics and the working mechanisms of the enzyme system is still inchoate.

The research, through a process of vitro recombination, expresses and purifies the subunit of fatty acid synthetase and catalyzes the releasing of TesA of free fatty acids. Moreover, a vitro system is rebuilt and the optimal mode of fatty acid synthetase is elaborated by the regulation of zymolyte, co-factor and the relative density of subunit.

The vitro system not only provides a new platform for the research of fatty acid synthetase, but also lays a solid foundation for the manufacture of new biofuels and chemical products.