초록
<P>Ethylene is an industrially important compound, but more sustainable production methods are desirable. Since cellulosomes increase the ability of cellulolytic enzymes by physically linking the relevant enzymes via dockerin–cohesin interactions, in this study, we genetically engineered a chimeric cellulosome-like complex of two ethylene-generating enzymes from tomato using cohesin–dockerins from the bacteria <I>Clostridium thermocellum</I> and <I>Acetivibrio cellulolyticus</I>. This complex was transformed into <I>Escherichia coli</I> to analyze kinetic parameters and enzyme complex formation and into the cyanobacterium <I>Synechococcus elongatus</I> PCC 7942, which was then grown with and without 0.1 mM isopropyl β-<SMALL>d</SMALL>-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) induction. Only at minimal protein expression levels (without IPTG), the chimeric complex produced 3.7 times more ethylene <I>in vivo</I> than did uncomplexed enzymes. Thus, cyanobacteria can be used to sustainably generate ethylene, and the synthetic enzyme complex greatly enhanced production efficiency. Artificial synthetic enzyme complexes hold great promise for improving the production efficiency of other industrial compounds.</P><P><B>Graphic Abstract</B><BR><IMG SRC='http://pubs.acs.org/appl/literatum/publisher/achs/journals/content/asbcd6/2014/asbcd6.2014.3.issue-7/sb400197f/production/images/medium/sb-2013-00197f_0007.gif'></P><P><A href='http://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/sb400197f'>ACS Electronic Supporting Info</A></P>