Finished project:

Bacillus Industrial Genomics & Strain Design

Bacillus strains are used for industrial production of proteases, amylases and secondary metabolites. The production is a complex process during which the organism has to adapt its metabolism to the changing conditions within the fermentation. To improve the overall process, knowledge of the regulatory processes during fermentation is very favorable. For that the main focus of our research is the identification and analysis of RNA-based regulators involved in energy- and biosynthesis metabolism of production and wild type strains of B. licheniformis.
In a combined effort with our industrial cooperation partner Henkel we want to investigate what it takes to be an optimal industrial production strain. During a model fermentation process carried out by Henkel we took samples for transcriptome, proteome and metabolome analysis. By combining and comparing our generated data sets we want to elucidate regulatory processes in wild type versus production strains, with focus on RNA-based regulation mediated by riboswitches, noncoding and antisense RNAs. The design of tools for management and bioinformatic analysis of the numerous data sets is also part of the project, as well as experimental verification and characterization of identified regulons. The sample processing and data generation is performed in cooperation with groups specialized on proteomics and metabolomics (Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald), microarray-based transcriptomics (TU Munich) and RNA chemistry (Goethe University Frankfurt). As part of the Göttingen Genomics Laboratory we are specialized in genome and transcriptome sequencing and analysis, vector and strain design, as well as design and generation of bioinformatic tools. The data analysis and the scientific evalution of all data is performed in our group.

Further research interests of our group are the genomic composition of the species B. licheniformis and B. pumilus, as well as the development and regulation of natural competence in Bacilli. Natural competence is a trait that enables bacteria to take-up free DNA from the environment and integrate it into the genome by homolog recombination. Since genetic susceptibility is an inevitable requirement for strain design, the understanding of natural competence in bacilli is of great benefit for the construction of improved strains.