Name：XiaoM Li（李小明） 

E-Mail：xm.li@giat.ac.cn 

Phone:13580724931 

Education：Graduated from south china agricultural university with the masters' degree of food science in 2012 

Experience:   

Biotech Labs，Asiapac  

Enzymes R&D Specialist ，2012 to 2015 

R&D of Cellulase、lipase、glucose oxidase、xylanase and derivatives  

Bioengineering center，GIAT 

RA，2015 to Present 

PACE Evolution of the Substrate Specificity of a Membrane Transporter 

Research Interests: Enzymes and Directed evolution  

Research progress: 

The lacking of specific transporters for a target substrate can be a common bottleneck in SynBio production. We attempt to evolve the substrate specificity of LacY (a lactose transporter) by introducing CelR (a cellobiose-specific regulator) to control the pIII expression, thereby coupling the amount of cellobiose absorbed by LacY mutants to the pIII expression level. Evolved LacY mutants that have high cellobiose-transport activities can allow the industrial strains to use cellulose as a cheap and alternative carbon source, and significantly reduce fermentation costs of biofuels and other products. Accessory plasmids containing TfCelR have been constructed, and their functions were as expected. The expression of PIII need a very strict promoter, and now we are screening appropriate promoters.