Marinalva Martins-Pinheiro

Research Project

Glycerol has important features that are useful in industry in general. However, as an abundant co-product in biodiesel production, the quantity will certainly exceed industry demand. This will probably cause an economic issue and environmental problems unless new technologies are developed quickly to take advantage of this surplus. A noble purpose and profit can be obtained from glycerol by its conversion to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (3-HPA) and/or 1,3-propanediol (1,3 PD), products with high added market value. These compounds are potential key raw materials for food preservation and for the production of polymers. The conversion of glycerol to these compounds by microbiological routes has been developed by several groups, but still requires new insights in order to be sufficiently productive for commercial application. The identification and characterization of microorganisms with desirable characteristics could be an alternative for achieving this goal.
Vectors bearing the genes of enzymes involved in glycerol conversion under the control of promoters inducible by specific conditions (oxygen tension, concentration of glucose, or specific carbon source, etc.) are being constructed. The conversion of glycerol to 3-HPA and 1,3-PD by these transgenic strains is being tested by cultivating the E. coli strains under different conditions.

Publications

Evolutionary placement of Xanthomonadales based on conserved protein signature sequences. Cutiño-Jiménez AM, Martins-Pinheiro M, Lima WC, Martín-Tornet A, Morales OG, Menck CF.Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2010 Feb;54(2):524-34. Epub 2009 Sep 26. Genome analysis of DNA repair genes in the alpha proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus.Martins-Pinheiro M, Marques RC, Menck CF.BMC Microbiol. 2007 Mar 12;7:17.

Different patterns of evolution for duplicated DNA repair genes in bacteria of the Xanthomonadales group.Martins-Pinheiro M, Galhardo RS, Lage C, Lima-Bessa KM, Aires KA, Menck CF. BMC Evol Biol. 2004 Aug 27;4:29.

AGNEZ, L. F. ; MEDEIROS, S. ; Marques RCPM ; Martins-Pinheiro M ; Menck, Carlos F.M. . Processos de Reparo de DNA: garantindo a estabilidade do material genético.. In: Lucia Regina Ribeiro. (Org.). Mutagênese Ambiental. Canoas: Editora da ULBRA, 2003, v. 1, p. 49-63.