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Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli to produce succinate from woody hydrolysate under anaerobic conditions

  • Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology - Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

It is of great economic interest to produce succinate from low-grade carbon sources, e.g., lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysate, which mainly contains glucose and xylose. Inactivation of the glucose uptake system PtsG was evaluated for succinate production from xylose-rich feedstocks. Strains with integration of succinate production modules into the chromosome of Escherichia coli were then constructed. These strains have better succinate production performance from xylose-rich feedstocks than strain FZ560 harboring pHL413KF1. Glucose utilization was enhanced in FZ661T by manipulation of the gal operon to allow efficient use of the high-concentration glucose in woody biomass hydrolysate. Up to 906.7 mM (107.0 g/L) succinate was produced from mixed sugars in fed-batch fermentation and more than 461.7 mM (54.5 g/L) succinate was produced from woody hydrolysate in a batch fermentation. In this study, FZ661T was able to produce succinate from woody hydrolysate in minimal medium efficiently, making it attractive for industrial applications in succinate production.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by United Soybean Board Award #1840-352-0707-C.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of BioSciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

    Fayin Zhu & George N. Bennett

  2. Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Chengqiang Wang & Ka-Yiu San

  3. College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, People’s Republic of China

    Chengqiang Wang

  4. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Ka-Yiu San & George N. Bennett

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  1. Fayin Zhu
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  2. Chengqiang Wang
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  4. George N. Bennett
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Correspondence to George N. Bennett.

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Zhu, F., Wang, C., San, KY. et al. Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli to produce succinate from woody hydrolysate under anaerobic conditions. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 47, 223–232 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-020-02259-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-020-02259-7

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