WP2 Growth of E. coli on formate
WP2 aims to establish E. coli strains growing on fomate via two synthetic pathways. In WP1 we talked a lot about formic acid, which is stable or chemically "undissociated" under acidic conditions. The formic acid is added to microbial culture at neutral conditions (pH~ 7) where it dissociates, and in this state we refer to it as formate. Once WP2 has optimised the fomate assimilation via both pathways, we can analyze the growth of both strains and decide which one is more suitable.