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Signaling in Soil. Soil microbes thrive within complex communities, and there is extensive molecular communication between member species. Some of these signals are transmitted through "fungal highways" - mycelia that extend for meters underground - that enable long-range communication. We are pushing the boundaries of genetic circuits by testing synthetic communication over large length scales within the soil.
Nonconventional Yeasts. The ethanologenic yeast S. cerevisiae is the foundation of the beer and wine making industries, as well as industrial synthetic biology. Even so, we reason that different metabolic networks naturally present in microbes like oleaginous yeasts or basidiomycete yeasts, coupled with improved tolerance phenotypes, can be a foundation for improved cell factories. This is because fewer genetic manipulations in these hosts could lead to higher product titers than achieved in S. cerevisiae. In other words, the metabolic network is primed by nature for the desired biosynthesis. We are adopting this "right host for the right product" strategy to produce terpenoids and free fatty acids (FFAs) in nonconventional yeasts.
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