AUTHOR=Winkelman Dirk C. , Nikolau Basil J. 

TITLE=The Effects of Carbon Source and Growth Temperature on the Fatty Acid Profiles of Thermobifida fusca

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-biosciences/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2022.896226

DOI=10.3389/fmolb.2022.896226

ISSN=2296-889X

ABSTRACT=<p>The aerobic, thermophilic <italic>Actinobacterium</italic>, <italic>Thermobifida fusca</italic> has been proposed as an organism to be used for the efficient conversion of plant biomass to fatty acid-derived precursors of biofuels or biorenewable chemicals. Despite the potential of <italic>T. fusca</italic> to catabolize plant biomass, there is remarkably little data available concerning the natural ability of this organism to produce fatty acids. Therefore, we determined the fatty acids that <italic>T. fusca</italic> produces when it is grown on different carbon sources (i.e., glucose, cellobiose, cellulose and avicel) and at two different growth temperatures, namely at the optimal growth temperature of 50°C and at a suboptimal temperature of 37°C. These analyses establish that <italic>T. fusca</italic> produces a combination of linear and branched chain fatty acids (BCFAs), including <italic>iso</italic>-, <italic>anteiso</italic>-, and 10-methyl BCFAs that range between 14- and 18-carbons in length. Although different carbon sources and growth temperatures both quantitatively and qualitatively affect the fatty acid profiles produced by <italic>T. fusca</italic>, growth temperature is the greater modifier of these traits. Additionally, genome scanning enabled the identification of many of the fatty acid biosynthetic genes encoded by <italic>T. fusca</italic>.</p>