BIOTEC: Frank Groß

Frank Groß

CV

10/1986 - 11/1993	Biology studies at University of Hohenheim; Diploma thesis: ?Cloning and sequencing of the gene of the inactive bromoper-oxidase-catalase from Streptomyces venezuelae cml-2? at the Institute of Microbiology in the group of Prof. Dr. K.-H. van Pée
1993 - 1998	PhD thesis: ?Molecular genetics and biochemical investigations on the biosynthesis of chloramphenicol in Streptomyces venezuelae? in the group of Prof. K.-H. van Pée at the University of Hohenheim and at the Technical University of Dresden, Institute of Biochemistry 03/ - 05/1996 visiting researcher at the Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, lab of Leo C. Vining
07/1997 - 05/1998	Research assistant at the Institute of Biochemistry, Technical University of Dresden, group of Dr. B. Schwenzer Investigations in developing methods for testing on natural or genetically engineered microorganisms in environmental samples on the basis of RNA probes
07/1998 - 12/1998	Postdoctoral scientist at the Institute of Biochemistry, Technical University of Dresden Project funded by Novartis Crop Protection, Inc. USA
01/1999 - 12/2001	Postdoctoral scientist at Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc., Natural Products Genetics Group (formerly Novartis Agribusiness Biotechnology Research, Inc.), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina USA
03/2002 - 09/2004	Postdoctoral scientist at the GBF ? German Research Centre for Biotechnology (now: HZI ? Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research) , Department: Natural Products/Molecular Biology of Myxobacteria, Braunschweig, Germany, group of Prof. R. Müller
10/2004 - 07/2005	Research Scientist at Gene Bridges GmbH, Research & Development, Dresden, Germany
09/2005 - now	Postdoctoral scientist, Department of Genomics, Technical University Dresden

Research Topic

Microorganisms have the ability to produce secondary metabolites, which exhibit often biological activities like antibiotic, antihelmintic, cytostatic or immunosuppressive that makes them valuable for the use as drugs in human and veterinary medicine or as agrochemicals. The secondary metabolites (natural products) can be classified according to their chemistry and two representatives are polyketides and non-ribosomally synthesized peptides. Both are synthesized via large megasynthetases from small building blocks. In many cases the original producer of the compound grows slowly or can?t be cultivated in the lab and the genetic information is only available via metagenomics. In addition genome-sequencing projects revealed a large number of so called ?silent? biosynthetic gene clusters. This demonstrates the need for new hosts for heterologous expression of these biosynthetic gene clusters. We engineer Pseudomonas putida for this purpose.

Publications

Fu, J., Wenzel, S. C., Perlova, O., Wang, J., Gross, F., Tang, Z., Yin, Y., Stewart, A. F., Muller, R. and Zhang, Y. (2008). "Efficient transfer of two large secondary metabolite pathway gene clusters into heterologous hosts by transposition." Nucleic Acids Res 36: e113.

Schneiker, S., Perlova, O., Kaiser, O., Gerth, K., Alici, A., Altmeyer, M. O., Bartels, D., Bekel, T., Beyer, S., Bode, E., Bode, H. B., Bolten, C. J., Choudhuri, J. V., Doss, S., Elnakady, Y. A., Frank, B., Gaigalat, L., Goesmann, A., Groeger, C., Gross, F., Jelsbak, L., Kalinowski, J., Kegler, C., Knauber, T., Konietzny, S., Kopp, M., Krause, L., Krug, D., Linke, B., Mahmud, T., Martinez-Arias, R., McHardy, A. C., Merai, M., Meyer, F., Mormann, S., Munoz-Dorado, J., Perez, J., Pradella, S., Rachid, S., Raddatz, G., Rosenau, F., Ruckert, C., Sasse, F., Scharfe, M., Schuster, S. C., Suen, G., Treuner-Lange, A., Velicer, G. J., Vorholter, F. J., Weissman, K. J., Welch, R. D., Wenzel, S. C., Whitworth, D. E., Wilhelm, S., Wittmann, C., Blocker, H., Puhler, A. and Muller, R. (2007). "Complete genome sequence of the myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosum." Nat Biotechnol 25: 1281-9.

Gross, F., Luniak, N., Perlova, O., Gaitatzis, N., Jenke-Kodama, H., Gerth, K., Gottschalk, D., Dittmann, E. and Muller, R. (2006). "Bacterial type III polyketide synthases: phylogenetic analysis and potential for the production of novel secondary metabolites by heterologous expression in pseudomonads." Arch Microbiol 185: 28-38.

Gross, F., Ring, M. W., Perlova, O., Fu, J., Schneider, S., Gerth, K., Kuhlmann, S., Stewart, A. F., Zhang, Y. and Muller, R. (2006). "Metabolic engineering of Pseudomonas putida for methylmalonyl-CoA biosynthesis to enable complex heterologous secondary metabolite formation." Chem Biol 13: 1253-64.

Gross, F., Gottschalk, D. and Muller, R. (2005). "Posttranslational modification of myxobacterial carrier protein domains in Pseudomonas sp. by an intrinsic phosphopantetheinyl transferase." Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 68: 66-74.

Molnar, I., Hill, D. S., Zirkle, R., Hammer, P. E., Gross, F., Buckel, T. G., Jungmann, V., Pachlatko, J. P. and Ligon, J. M. (2005). "Biocatalytic conversion of avermectin to 4"-oxo-avermectin: heterologous expression of the ema1 cytochrome P450 monooxygenase." Appl Environ Microbiol 71: 6977-85.

Wenzel, S. C., Gross, F., Zhang, Y., Fu, J., Stewart, A. F. and Muller, R. (2005). "Heterologous expression of a myxobacterial natural products assembly line in pseudomonads via red/ET recombineering." Chem Biol 12: 349-56.

Kopp, M., Irschik, H., Gross, F., Perlova, O., Sandmann, A., Gerth, K. and Muller, R. (2004). "Critical variations of conjugational DNA transfer into secondary metabolite multiproducing Sorangium cellulosum strains So ce12 and So ce56: development of a mariner-based transposon mutagenesis system." J Biotechnol 107: 29-40.

Gross, F., Lewis, E. A., Piraee, M., van Pee, K. H., Vining, L. C. and White, R. L. (2002). "Isolation of 3' -O-acetylchloramphenicol: a possible intermediate in chloramphenicol biosynthesis." Bioorg Med Chem Lett 12: 283-6.

Facey, S. J., Gross, F., Vining, L. C., Yang, K. and van Pee, K. H. (1996). "Cloning, sequencing and disruption of a bromoperoxidase-catalase gene in Streptomyces venezuelae: evidence that it is not required for chlorination in chloramphenicol biosynthesis." Microbiology 142 ( Pt 3): 657-65.