Research Groups
Synthetic Biology and Biofuel
Research Interests and Description
Group Leader: Syed Shams Yazdani, PhD
Research Interests
Metabolic engineering, cellulolytic enzymes, biofuels.
Applications are invited for:
Team Leaders and Research Scientists to drive bio-energy research in an independent and collaborative manner. These opportunities are being offered in the context of the Government of India, Biotechnology Department and ICGEB collaborative centre set up to perform cutting-edge research in the field of bioenergy using genomics, metagenomics, synthetic biology and systems biology approaches.
Send Curriculum Vitae, list of publications and names of three referees directly to:
Dr. Syed Shams Yazdani, Coordinator
DBT-ICGEB Centre for Advanced Bio-Energy Research
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology ICGEB
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067, INDIA
Email: dbt.icgeb.centre@gmail.com
Closing date for applications: 25 April 2012
Description of Research
Discovery and design of novel enzymes and enzyme systems for biofuels
The focus is to apply molecular biology tools to address key issues in the biofuel area. In our effort to develop a cost effective process to produce second generation biofuels, we are identifying novel enzymes with higher specificities towards cellulosic biomass using genomic and metagenomic approaches. We have identified novel cellulase and xylanase enzymes from bacteria isolated from mid-gut of insects living on agricultural biomass and overexpressed them in E. coli for use in the saccharification process. We use a structural modelling approach to design a series of bifunctional enzymes and express them in E. coli to evaluate functionality. We have synthesized two sets of chimeric bifunctional enzymes, one with the fusion between endocellulase and xylanase, the other with the fusion between endocellulase and beta-glucosidase. We have selected the bifunctional enzymes that had shown equal or higher activity than their individual counterparts, and are further developing processes to produce these enzymes in the bioreactors, testing their stability and activity on a pilot scale.
Engineering bacteria to produce biofuel
We have discovered a pathway in Escherichia coli that enables this organism to produce bio-ethanol from crude glycerol generated as waste from the biodiesel industry (work performed in collaboration with the Rice University, Houston, Texas). Further metabolic engineering of E. coli was done to enhance the yield of bioethanol. We are now working on the production of various biofuel molecules in microbes from pretreated lignocellulosic biomass through metabolic engineering and system biology approaches. We are secreting various cellulolytic enzymes in E. coli to enable use of pretreated lignocellulosic biomass. To produce a high level of ethanol using metabolic engineering tools, we are engineering E. coli to enhance the bioethanol yield by blocking side pathways that produce competing co-products and providing an alternate pathway that can fulfil NADH requirement for homo-ethanol production. We have identified several natural bacteria from the gut of insects (living on plants) that degrade lignocellulosic biomass with high efficiency, and are exploring the possibility to engineer these bacteria to produce bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass. The development of an integrated biocatalyst that can perform both functions, i.e. conversion of complex cellulose and hemicellulose into monomeric sugar molecules and fermentation of monomeric sugar into biothanol, is likely to bring down the production cost of lignocellulosic ethanol considerably. We are also engineering a laboratory bacterium that can produce butanol, an alcohol that has properties closer to natural petroleum, from agricultural biomass.
Algal biofuel technology
We work on the development of cost effective biofuel production technology from algal biomass. Considering the huge potential of microalgae to become the future source of biofuel, and because of the favorable Indian climate, we are focusing on both marine and fresh water algae to generate biofuel. We have obtained lipid rich marine strains from the Indian Ocean and have developed the technology to grow these under laboratory conditions. We have characterized their lipid parameters and compared this with a known algal strain. We are now developing technology to transform these algal strains and improve their growth rate and lipid content.
Recent Publications
Adlakha, N., Rajagopal, R., Kumar, S., Reddy, V.S., Yazdani, S.S. 2011. Synthesis and characterization of chimeric proteins based on cellulase and xylanase from an insect gut bacterium. Appl Environ Microbiol 77, 4859-4866 PubMed link
Mazumdar, S., Sachdeva, S., Chauhan, V.S., Yazdani, S.S. 2010. Identification of cultivation condition to produce correctly folded form of a malaria vaccine based on Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein-1 in Escherichia coli. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 33, 719-730 PubMed link
Yazdani, S.S., Mattam, A.J., Gonzalez, R. 2010. Fuel and chemical production from glycerol, a biodiesel waste product. In: “Biofuels from Agricultural Wastes and Byproducts”. Blaschek H., Ezeji T., Scheffran, J. Eds. Blackwell Publishing, Ames, IA, USA
Gonzalez, R., Murarka, A., Dharmadi, Y., Yazdani, S.S. 2008. A new model for the anaerobic fermentation of glycerol in enteric bacteria: trunk and auxiliary pathways in Escherichia coli. Metab Eng 10, 234-245 PubMed link
Yazdani, S.S., Gonzalez, R. 2008. Engineering Escherichia coli for the efficient conversion of glycerol to ethanol and co-products. Metab Eng 10, 340-351 PubMed link
Yazdani, S.S., Gonzalez, R. 2007. Anaerobic fermentation of glycerol: a path to economic viability for the biofuels industry. Curr Opin Biotechnol 18, 213-219 PubMed link
