Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum strain:JW/SL-YS485 LL1194 Genome sequencing

Thermoanaerobacterium saccharolyticum (T. sacch) has a robust pyruvate to ethanol metabolic pathway that we would like to transfer to Clostridium thermocellum for the purpose of generating an organism capable of cellulose to ethanol conversion. Recently we made a deletion of the pfor gene, which was thought to be essential for ethanol production, however ethanol was still produced in this strain. Interestingly, acetate production was decreased. The strain initially grew slowly, however after several rounds of serial transfer, its growth rate increased. We suspect the change in growth rate is the result of secondary mutations. We hope to find these secondary mutations as part of this sequencing proposal. The location of these secondary mutations may indicate the actual pathway that is being used for pyruvate to ethanol conversion.