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Genetic Analysis Of Acetone Carboxylase In Azotobacter Vinelandii, Jessica Gardner

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Acetone carboxylase, an inducible multimeric enzyme found in several bacteria, catalyzes the carboxylation of acetone to produce acetoacetate. This is an important reaction for the bacteria because, upon addition of coenzyme A, the acetoacetate can be converted to acetyl-CoA, a common metabolic intermediate. Azotobacter vinelandii, one of the bacteria that produces acetone carboxylase, has two different genes encoding this enzyme. We knocked out the first of these by disrupting it with a kanamycin cassette to help us understand the function of the second gene. Knocking out the gene will also make possible the use of site-directed mutagenesis to further study …