Metabolic and morphogenetic engineering of Bacillus subtilis: biotechnology for industry

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D. degree in “Biology” at the Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology of the New University of Lisbon

The bacterium Bacillus subtilis plays a major role as model for Gram-positive research, and is widely used as industrial workhorse for the production of high-value enzymes and metabolites. Successful development of commercially-attractive strains and of original products is the key of innovation in microbial industry. Evolving a natural B. subtilis strain into an overproducer involves genetic engineering. In spite of a wide range of genetic tools and techniques available for B. subtilis, engineering of the metabolic pathways, with the purpose to reach industrially significant amount of products, requires a deep and specific understanding of the metabolism.(...)