Abstract
Corynebacterium glutamicum was metabolically engineered to broaden its substrate utilization range to include the pentose sugar l-arabinose, a product of the degradation of lignocellulosic biomass. The resultant CRA1 recombinant strain expressed the Escherichia coli genes araA, araB, and araD encoding l-arabinose isomerase, l-ribulokinase, and l-ribulose-5-phosphate 4-epimerase, respectively, under the control of a constitutive promoter. Unlike the wild-type strain, CRA1 was able to grow on mineral salts medium containing l-arabinose as the sole carbon and energy source. The three cloned genes were expressed to the same levels whether cells were cultured in the presence of d-glucose or l-arabinose. Under oxygen deprivation and with l-arabinose as the sole carbon and energy source, strain CRA1 carbon flow was redirected to produce up to 40, 37, and 11%, respectively, of the theoretical yields of succinic, lactic, and acetic acids. Using a sugar mixture containing 5% d-glucose and 1% l-arabinose under oxygen deprivation, CRA1 cells metabolized l-arabinose at a constant rate, resulting in combined organic acids yield based on the amount of sugar mixture consumed after d-glucose depletion (83%) that was comparable to that before d-glucose depletion (89%). Strain CRA1 is, therefore, able to utilize l-arabinose as a substrate for organic acid production even in the presence of d-glucose.
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Acknowledgment
We thank Crispinus A. Omumasaba for the critical reading of the manuscript and for the helpful comments. This work was supported by a grant from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan.
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Kawaguchi, H., Sasaki, M., Vertès, A.A. et al. Engineering of an l-arabinose metabolic pathway in Corynebacterium glutamicum . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 77, 1053–1062 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-007-1244-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-007-1244-x