A quadrupole-based mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionization source was used to examine the gas-phase reactivity of various vanadium-oxide cations which mediate the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of small alkenes and alkanes. For ion generation, a solution of V6O7(OMe)12 dissolved in deuterated methanol was subjected electrospray under very harsh conditions to obtain smaller v...

Several strains that grow on medium-chain-length alkanes and catalyze interesting hydroxylation and epoxidation reactions do not possess integral membrane nonheme iron alkane hydroxylases. Using PCR, we show that most of these strains possess enzymes related to CYP153A1 and CYP153A6, cytochrome P450 enzymes that were characterized as alkane hydroxylases. A vector for the polycistronic coexpress...

Previously, it was shown that β-ketoacyl-coenzyme A synthase ECERIFERUM6 (CER6) is necessary for the biosynthesis of very-long-chain fatty acids with chain lengths beyond C₂₈ in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruits and C₂₆ in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) leaves and the pollen coat. CER6 loss of function in Arabidopsis resulted in conditional male sterility, since pollen coat lipids are re...

The cuticular hydrocarbons of diapausing pupae of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta (L.), are composed of two types of hydrocarbons: n-alkanes (3%) and unsaturated hydrocarbons (97%). The integument, fat body, muscle, and hemolymph are composed of three types of hydrocarbons: n-alkanes (9, 6, 9, and 2%, respectively), branched alkanes (75, 85, 80, and 56%, respectively), and unsaturated hydro...

We describe how pathway engineering can be used to convert a single intermediate derived from lipid biosynthesis, fatty aldehydes, into a variety of biofuel precursors including alkanes, free fatty acids and wax esters. In cyanobacteria, long-chain acyl-ACPs can be reduced to fatty aldehydes, and then decarbonylated to alkanes. We discovered a cyanobacteria class-3 aldehyde-dehydrogenase, AldE,...

The selectivity of ammonia monooxygenase from Nitrosomonas europaea (AMO-Ne) for the oxidation of C4-C8n-alkanes to the corresponding alcohol isomers was examined to show the ability of AMO-Ne to recognize the n-alkane orientation within the catalytic site. AMO-Ne in whole cells produces 1- and 2-alcohols from C4-C8n-alkanes, and the regioselectivity is dependent on the length of the carbon cha...

This paper describes the parametrization of a new coarse grained (CG) model for lipid and surfactant systems. Reduction of the number of degrees of freedom together with the use of short range potentials makes it computationally very efficient. Compared to atomistic models a gain of 3-4 orders of magnitude can be achieved. Micrometer length scales or millisecond time scales are therefore within...

The ability of two recently isolated actinobacteria, that degrade medium and long chain n-alkanes in laboratory water medium, was investigated in soil microcosms using different standard soils that were artificially contaminated with n-alkanes of different length (C(12)- C(20)- C(24)- C(30)). The two strains, identified as Nocardia sp. SoB and Gordonia sp. SoCp, revealed a similar high HC degra...

Construction of highly efficient microbial cell factories producing drop-in biofuel alkanes is severely limited due to the lack of a fast detection method against alkanes. Here we first developed a sensitive fluorescent biosensor for rapid and in situ monitoring of intracellular alkane synthesis. Using GFP as reporter, the biosensor could actively respond to the intracellular alkane products, e...