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Improving furfural tolerance of Zymomonas mobilis by rewiring a sigma factor RpoD protein

  • Bioenergy and biofuels
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Abstract

Furfural from lignocellulosic hydrolysates is the key inhibitor for bio-ethanol fermentation. In this study, we report a strategy of improving the furfural tolerance in Zymomonas mobilis on the transcriptional level by engineering its global transcription sigma factor (σ70, RpoD) protein. Three furfural tolerance RpoD mutants (ZM4-MF1, ZM4-MF2, and ZM4-MF3) were identified from error-prone PCR libraries. The best furfural-tolerance strain ZM4-MF2 reached to the maximal cell density (OD600) about 2.0 after approximately 30 h, while control strain ZM4-rpoD reached its highest cell density of about 1.3 under the same conditions. ZM4-MF2 also consumed glucose faster and yield higher ethanol; expression levels and key Entner-Doudoroff (ED) pathway enzymatic activities were also compared to control strain under furfural stress condition. Our results suggest that global transcription machinery engineering could potentially be used to improve stress tolerance and ethanol production in Z. mobilis.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Applied Basic Research Programs of Sichuan province (NO. 2014JY0065) and partially supported by Youth Science and Technology Foundation of Sichuan Province in China (Grant NO: 2015JQ0047). Open Funds of Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps Key Laboratory of Protection and Utilization of Biological Resources in Tarim Basin (Tarim University, BRZD1403). Open Funds of State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology (Shandong University, M2013-07), Open Funds of Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources Collection and Preservation (Ministry of Agriculture, MOA, 2013),

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture, Biomass Energy Technology Research Centre, Section 4-13, Renming Nanlu, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Fu-Rong Tan, Li-Chun Dai, Bo Wu, Han Qin, Zong-Xia Shui, Jing-Li Wang, Qi-Li Zhu, Qi-Chun Hu & Ming-Xiong He

  2. Key Laboratory of Development and Application of Rural Renewable Energy, Ministry of Agriculture, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Qi-Chun Hu & Ming-Xiong He

  3. Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    Zhi-Yong Ruan

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  1. Fu-Rong Tan
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Correspondence to Ming-Xiong He.

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Tan, FR., Dai, LC., Wu, B. et al. Improving furfural tolerance of Zymomonas mobilis by rewiring a sigma factor RpoD protein. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 5363–5371 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6577-2

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