Associate Prof. Le Yiling published journal article on Genetics and Molecular Biology with title of "Genome Editing of the Anaerobic Thermophile Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus Using Thermostable Cas9"

A novel method to be developed for genome editing of the anaerobic thermophiles

Recently, Dr. Yilin Le, from our institute, published his new discovery, which is titled as " Genome editing of the anaerobic thermophile Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus using thermostable Cas9" in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a top journal in the field of Microbiology. Jiangsu University is the first finishing unit of this paper, and Associate Research Fellow Yilin Le and Professor Jianzhong Sun are co-correspondents.

The interest in thermophilic microorganisms as emerging metabolic engineering platforms to produce biofuels and chemicals has surged in acadmy. Thermophilic microbes for biofuels have been attracted great attention, due to their tolerance of high temperature and wide range of substrate utilizations.

In line with the lack of a genetic tool, serious pathway engineering in thermophilic strict anaerobes remains challenging. Establishment of genetic techniques has become a foundation for further genetic modification of thermophilic microbes. A thermostable Cas9 based system for genome editing of T. ethanolicus was successfully constructed. This novel genetic system can be potentially applied to identify a gene that may involve in a biosynthesis/energy metabolism; and, more importantly, it can also be modified as a vital tool to metabolically engineer T. ethanolicus to produce a variety of different biofuels by editing its key enzyme genes. This genetic system is indeed an important expansion and a valuable contribution to the genetic tool box of some thermophiles.

Full text link: https://aem.asm.org/content/87/1/e01773-20