Bacteria Genomes - ZYMOMONAS MOBILIS

Fossil fuels represent the most exploited forms of energy today and it has been calculated that at the present rate of production fossil fuels would be exhausted in the next century therefore there is a need to develop and implement viable technologies for the production of alternative renewable energy and feedstock.

Today, many of the technologies for the production of alternative fuels such as bio-ethanol are not competitive with the cheap fossils fuels available. Despite this, some commercial interest and research continues because of the abundance of raw materials and the prediction that the energy economics will change in the near future to favour bio-fuels. Concerns for the enviroment has also renewed intrest in the fuel ethanol.

Z. mobilis is a strictly fermentative, Gram-negative bacterium that occurs as motile short rods. It has attracted considerable attention as a promising agent for large scale production of ethanol because of its unusual physiological and biochemical properties because of its high efficiency in ethanol production. In contrast to Yeast both produce similar final concentrations of ethanol, but Z. mobilis is an anaerobe and does not require any oxygen for growth and produces ethanol from glucose more efficiently.

References:

Nat. Biotechnol. 23(1):63-68(2005)
http://microcell.ufl.edu/davis.html
http://www.kmutt.ac.th/organization/Research/Intellect/pdf/41141.pdf
http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/biology.htm