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Rhodopseudomonas palustris has an extraordinary metabolic versatility; this organism can grow in a wide variety of environmental conditions. R palustris obtain energy by different mechanism including anoxygenic photosynthesis, aerobic and anaerobic respiration.

 

Figure Metabolic versatility or R. palustris (Harwood et. al. (2004))

When O2 is absent or limiting, light energy can be harnessed by a photosynthetic electron transport chain that has features similar to those used by plants and other oxygen-evolving phototrophs (3). During photosynthetic growth, R. palustris is capable of autotrophic or heterotrophic growth using either carbon dioxide (CO2) or organic carbon sources.
Biotechnological potential
R. palustris is an excellent candidate for use in a wide variety of biotechnological applications because of a wide range of regulation systems that allow it to sense environmental conditions.

Why synthetic biology in R. palustris?

The application of Synthetic Biology in R. palustris could help to exploit the biotechnological potential of this organism. We want to explore the functioning of 2 orthologous regulation systems that respond to oxygen and light inspired in Rhodobacter sphaeroides regulatory systems.

1. Hunter CN, Daldal F, Thurnauer MC, Beatty JT: (2009) The Purple Phototrophic Bacteria. Springer; 200928. pp. 707–725.
2.  Harwood et. al. (2004) Complete genome sequence of the metabolically versatile photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Nature Biotechnology Volume 2, Number 1, January 2004
3. Imam S., Yilmaz S., Sohmen Y, Gorzalski A., Reed J. Noguera D., Donohue T. (2011) iRsp1095: A genome-scale reconstruction of theRhodobacter sphaeroides metabolic network BMC Systems Biology 2011, 5:116