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Increased production of succinic acid in Escherichia coli by overexpression of malate dehydrogenase

Biotechnology Letters volume 33, pages 2439–2444 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

Escherichia coli NZN111 is a double mutant with inactivated lactate dehydrogenase and pyruvate formate-lyase. It cannot utilize glucose anaerobically because of its unusually high intracellular NADH/NAD+ ratio. We have now constructed a recombinant strain, E. coli NZN111/pTrc99a-mdh, which, during anaerobic fermentation, produced 4.3 g succinic acid l−1 from 13.5 g glucose l−1. The NADH/NAD+ ratio decreased from 0.64 to 0.26. Furthermore, dual-phase fermentation (aerobic growth followed by anaerobic phase) resulted in enhanced succinic acid production and reduced byproduct formation. The yield of succinic acid from glucose during the anaerobic phase was 0.72 g g−1, and the productivity was 1.01 g l−1 h−1.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by “973” Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB724701) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21076105).

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Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, 210009, People’s Republic of China

    Li-ya Liang, Rong-ming Liu, Jiang-feng Ma, Ke-quan Chen, Min Jiang & Ping Wei

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  1. Li-ya Liang
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  2. Rong-ming Liu
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  3. Jiang-feng Ma
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  4. Ke-quan Chen
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  5. Min Jiang
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Correspondence to Min Jiang.

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Liang, Ly., Liu, Rm., Ma, Jf. et al. Increased production of succinic acid in Escherichia coli by overexpression of malate dehydrogenase. Biotechnol Lett 33, 2439–2444 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-011-0707-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-011-0707-4

Keywords

  • Dual-phase fermentation
  • Escherichia coli NZN111
  • Malate dehydrogenase
  • Succinic acid