Suppression of filamentation in recombinant Escherichia coli by amplified FtsZ activity

Abstract

A stable plasmid pSYL107 containing the Alcaligenes eutrophus polyhydroxyalkanoate biosynthesis genes and the Escherichia coil ftsZ gene was constructed. Cell filamentation previously observed during the synthesis of poly(3-hydroxybutyric acid), PHB, could be suppressed by the amplified activity of FtsZ. In a defined medium XL1-Blue (pSYL107) accumulated twice as much PHB than XL1-Blue harboring pSYL105, which does not contain the ftsZ gene.