Speakers
How Microorganisms Produce Vanillin
Gerben J. Zylstra
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ
Plants are renowned for their ability to synthesize an array of chemically diverse compounds. Among their major metabolic pathways is the production of phenylpropanoids, which play a vital role in lignin synthesis, a key structural polymer in plants. As a result, microorganisms have evolved mechanisms to utilize various plant-derived compounds as sources of carbon and energy. Given the abundance of plant-derived hydrocarbons in the environment, it is reasonable to speculate that many soil microorganisms are capable of metabolizing lignin (or its derivatives) and cellulose (or cellulose-derived compounds). Indeed, soil microorganisms have developed sophisticated catabolic pathways and enzymatic mechanisms to break down lignin, converting its monomeric components into carbon dioxide. These pathways generally function by shortening side chains, oxidizing and cleaving aromatic rings, and ultimately generating compounds that enter the tricarboxylic acid cycle. It is theoretically feasible to block the microbial degradation of lignin-derived compounds to produce vanillin. Similarly, vanillin can be synthesized from alternative feedstocks, such as sugars, using recombinant organisms. In these cases, microbial metabolism is often modified, incorporating genes for essential enzymatic steps. Examples of such “Green Chemistry” approaches will be presented.
Gerben Zylstra is a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Microbiology at Rutgers University. He also serves as the Director of the Microbial Biology Graduate Program and as the Associate Dean of Graduate Education. He is widely recognized for employing genomic and physiological techniques to uncover how bacteria break down aromatic hydrocarbons.