Phenotypic Heterogeneity of PHB Production in \u3cem\u3eMethylobacterium extorquens\u3c/em\u3e

Lignin serves as an unexploited potential biofuel stock in order to produce butanol, due to the presence of methoxylated aromatics produced during the breaking down of lignin. Methoxylated aromatics have proven difficult to break down through microbial conversion due to their toxic nature. However, Methylobacterium extorquens has shown a promising ability to resist the toxicity from formaldehyde produced during the breaking down of such aromatics. The production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) from methoxylated aromatics in M. extorquens is useful as a proxy for investigating potential 1-butanol production, as it follows the same carbon flow. This project aims to understand under which conditions M. extorquens yields the highest production of PHB while investigating the role of methoxylated aromatics as a carbon source. Diving further, this project goes past population level PHB quantification and aims to quantify single cell PHB production. Using a combination of flow cytometry and fluorescent microscopy this project will investigate the phenotypic heterogeneity of PHB production from methoxylated aromatics in M. extorquens