Eurofins Medigenomix / MWG Biotech sequence Wacker Chemie AG's bacterial protein production strain

29-May-2007

Eurofins Medigenomix GmbH / MWG Biotech AG have finalised a genome sequencing project with Wacker Chemie AG for the analysis of the genetic differences between Wacker's proprietary industrial protein production E. coli strain and its corresponding parental strain. The successful sequencing is an important step to further improve and advance Wacker's E.coli strain and the related proprietary E. coli secretion system, which is a well-established technology for cost-efficient production of proteins.

The genome of the E.coli strain was sequenced with ultra parallel shotgun sequencing using GS 20 technology, a high-throughput automated DNA sequencing system. The sequence reads have been assembled into contigs, i.e. sets of overlapping DNA segments, and subsequently analysed with MWG's proprietary genome comparison tool and displayed with the MWG's Annotation Viewer software.

"We are very impressed by the rapid and precise analysis of our E. coli production strain. The results will help us to further improve the performance of our production strain immensely", states Günter Wich, Head of the Biotechnology Department of Wacker Chemie AG's corporate R&D. "In addition, the further increase of efficiency will result in even more favourable cost of goods which we can offer to our customers. This is a key advantage over conventional protein production systems."

Wacker's E. coli secretion system is a commercialized and well-established technology for protein production. The core of the technology is Wacker's proprietary E. coli K12 strain, which is capable of secreting a vast variety of different recombinant proteins in their native form into the fermentation broth during cultivation, according to the company.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/64906/eurofins-medigenomix-mwg-biotech-sequence-wacker-chemie-ag-s-bacterial-protein-production-strain.html