US patent application 20150176033 to Joule Unlimited: REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES-RESISTANT MICROORGANISMS

The first twelve claims of the published patent application:



1. A method to produce a carbon-based product of interest, comprising culturing an engineered cyanobacterial cell in a cell culture in the presence of CO.sub.2 and light under conditions suitable to produce a carbon-based product of interest, wherein said engineered cyanobacterial cell comprises a recombinant nucleic acid encoding an enzyme classified under an Enzyme Commission number selected from EC 1.11.1.6, EC 1.11.1.7, and EC 1.11.1.21.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said enzyme has catalase activity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said enzyme has peroxidase activity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said enzyme is selected from KatG and KatE.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said enzyme comprises an amino acid sequence at least 90% identical to SEQ ID NO: 3.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said enzyme comprises an amino acid sequence at least 90% identical to SEQ ID NO: 4.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said cell culture further comprises hydrogen peroxide.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said hydrogen peroxide is at a concentration of 0.1 to 50 mM in said cell culture.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said cell culture comprises a reagent to mitigate contamination of said cell culture.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said cell culture is exposed to diurnal light conditions.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said engineered cyanobacterial cell has the same or a higher rate of ethanol production in said cell culture than an otherwise identical cyanobacterial cell lacking said recombinant nucleic acid.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the production rate of ethanol of a culture of said engineered cyanobacterial cells is greater than a rate selected from: 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, and 400 mg*L.sup.-1*day.sup.-1, or wherein the production rate of ethanol of a culture of said engineered byanobacterial cells is greater than a rate selected from: 13, 14, 15, and 16 mg*L.sup.-1*h.sup.-1, or wherein the mass of ethanol produced by a culture of said engineered cyanobacterial cells per volume of said culture is greater than an amount selected from: 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, and 8 g/L, or wherein said ethanol is produced during up to 30 days of culture.



The US case is related to PCT/US2012/071250, for which the written opinion of May 2013 was unfavorable.