Herbicide-resistant rice plants, isolated polynucleotides that encode herbicide resistant and wild-type acetohydroxy-acid synthase large subunit 1 (AHASL1) polypeptides, and the amino acid sequences of these polypeptides, are described. Expression cassettes and transformation vectors comprising the polynucleotides of the invention, as well as plants and host cells transformed with the polynucleotides, are described. Methods of using the polynucleotides to enhance the resistance of plants to imidazolinone herbicides, and methods for controlling weeds in the vicinity of herbicide-resistant plants are also described.

An engineered yeast strain capable of efficient fermentation of xylose to ethanol, and methods of making and using the strain, are provided

Embodiments provide a modified microbe capable of growing in or fermenting a solution, or lignocellulosic hydrolysate, comprising ferulic acid and/or coniferyl aldehyde. The microbe has one or more modifications to provide: (a) a decrease in copy number or expression of a BNA7 gene; (b) an increase in copy number or expression of one or more pentose phosphate pathway genes; and/or (c) localization of one or more products of the pentose phosphate pathway genes to the mitochondria or endoplasmic reticulum. Also provided is a microbe having modified expression or copy number of BNA7 and/or one or more of the pentose phosphate pathway genes. The pentose phosphate pathway genes may in certain embodiments be selected from at least one of ZWF1, TKL1, RPE1 and GND1. Also provided is a method for fermenting a substrate comprising ferulic acid and/or coniferyl aldehyde to produce a fermentation product.

Described herein are devices and methods for increasing the production of steviol glycosides, which have industrial and economic value. The steviol glycosides produced by the devices and methods disclosed herein do not require the ultra purification that is common in conventional or commercial methods and do not have a bitter aftertaste, making them better suited as flavor-enhancing additives to food, pharmaceutical, and nutritional supplement products.

Disclosed is a technique for constructing optogenetic amplifier and inverter circuits utilizing transcriptional activator/repressor pairs, in which expression of the transcriptional activator or repressor, respectively, is controlled by light-controlled transcription factors. This system is demonstrated utilizing the quinic acid regulon system from Neurospora crassa, or Q System, a transcriptional activator/repressor system. This is also demonstrated utilizing the galactose regulon from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or GAL System. Such optogenetic amplifier circuits enable multi-phase microbial fermentations, in which different light schedules are applied in each phase to dynamically control different metabolic pathways for the production of proteins, fuels or chemicals. The orthogonal nature of the Q and GAL systems enable the co-expression of amplifier and inverter circuits to simultaneously amplify and invert the response of light-controlled transcriptional controls over different sets of genes in the same cell.

The present invention relates to a recombinant microorganism which is capable of simultaneously fermenting at least two sugars in a lignocellulosic saccharified liquid, and also capable of generating diol.

Described herein is a method for producing a transgenic cell product wherein the gene of interest is operably linked to an inducible promoter other than AOX1. Production of the transgenic cell product is activated when the host cell is grown on a non-repressing carbon source for de-repressing the inducible promoter and an amount of an inducer compound selected from the group consisting of: formaldehyde; S-formylglutathione; S-hydroxymethyl glutathione; formic acid; an alkali metal salt of formic acid; and an alkaline earth metal salt of formic acid; sufficient to induce the inducible promoter is added to the host cell culture.

Enzymes and methods are described herein for manufacturing terpenes, including terpenes.

The invention relates to a metabolic enzyme-disrupted aerobic strain and a method for culturing the strain. The present invention provides, for example, a culture comprising a culture medium that has been cultured under an aerobic condition, wherein the culture medium contains an aerobe, wherein the aerobe has a disrupted gene encoding a metabolic enzyme of glycolysis selected from the group consisting of the metabolic enzymes of glycolysis except hexokinase, thereby suppressing metabolism from a carbon source (e.g., glucose) to the TCA cycle in the aerobe.

Genetically modified microorganisms that have the ability to convert carbon substrates into chemical products such as isobutanol are disclosed. For example, genetically modified methanotrophs that are capable of generating isobutanol at high titers from a methane source are disclosed. Methods of making these genetically modified microorganisms and methods of using them are also disclosed.