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Isolation of a novel platform bacterium for lignin valorization and its application in glucose-free cis,cis-muconate production

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

Abstract

Microbial production of cis,cis-muconate (ccMA) from phenolic compounds obtained by chemical depolymerization of lignin is a promising approach to valorize lignin. Because microbial production requires a large amount of carbon and energy source, it is desirable to establish a ccMA-producing strain that utilizes lignin-derived phenols instead of general sources like glucose. We isolated Pseudomonas sp. strain NGC7 that grows well on various phenolic compounds derived from p-hydroxyphenyl, guaiacyl, and syringyl units of lignin. An NGC7 mutant of protocatechuate (PCA) 3,4-dioxygenase and ccMA cycloisomerase genes (NGC703) lost the ability to grow on vanillate and p-hydroxybenzoate but grew normally on syringate. Introduction of a plasmid carrying genes encoding PCA decarboxylase, flavin prenyltransferase, vanillate O-demethylase, and catechol 1,2-dioxygenase into NGC703 enabled production of 3.2 g/L ccMA from vanillate with a yield of 75% while growing on syringate. This strain also produced ccMA from birch lignin-derived phenols. All these results indicate the utility of NGC7 in glucose-free ccMA production.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Advanced Low Carbon Technology Development (ALCA) program, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JPMJAL1506) for funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Kamitomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata, 940-2188, Japan

    Eri Shinoda, Kenji Takahashi, Nanase Abe, Naofumi Kamimura & Eiji Masai

  2. Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University, Hirosaki, Aomori, 036-8561, Japan

    Tomonori Sonoki

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  1. Eri Shinoda
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  2. Kenji Takahashi
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Correspondence to Eiji Masai.

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N.K, T.S, and E.M. are inventors on a patent related to this work. The authors declare that they have no other conflict of interest.

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Shinoda, E., Takahashi, K., Abe, N. et al. Isolation of a novel platform bacterium for lignin valorization and its application in glucose-free cis,cis-muconate production. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 46, 1071–1080 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-019-02190-6

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