A genomic level analysis of alcohol producing pathways of Zymomonas mobilis

The need of alternative energy source has intensified the efforts to produce bio-ethanol and study the efficiency of its industrial processes using microorganisms. Our work intends to study and analyze the alcohol producing pathways of bacteria, signifying the importance of regulatory sequence, on genomic level. Zymomonas mobilis, considered as a potent future organism for alcohol production, was chosen for this study. The pathway was analysed on the basis of promoter regulation, a key factor for synthesis of enzymes. It was found that the second TA base pair could be central to the binding of TATA box-binding protein (TBP) to TATA box. The length of the TATA box, based on analysis of bending stiffness energy ratio of left sequence to right sequence of central base pair, is proposed to be 10. A mathematical model for the prediction of promoter strength was developed based on bending stiffness energy of flanking sequence of TATA box. The relative promoter strengths of all the genes, of the enzymes that take part in alcohol production, were predicted using this model. Results were analyzed and the predictions of the model for the bacteria, Zymomonas mobilis, were supported by available experimental literature.