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In silico analysis of bioethanol production from glucose/xylose mixtures during fed-batch fermentation of co-culture and mono-culture systems

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Abstract

This study presents a detailed in silico analysis of bioethanol production from glucose/xylose mixtures of various compositions by fed-batch co-culture and mono-culture fermentation of specialized microbes. The mono-culture consists of recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisise that can metabolize both hexose and pentose sugars while the co-culture system consists of substrate-selective microbes. Dynamic flux balance models based on available genome-scale reconstructions of the microorganisms have been used to analyze bioethanol production in fed-batch culture with constant feed rates and the maximization of ethanol productivity is addressed by computing optimal aerobic-anaerobic switching times. The simulation results clearly point to the superior performance of fed-batch fermentation of microbial co-culture against fed-batch fermentation of mono-culture for bioethanol production from glucose/xylose mixtures. A set of potential genetic engineering strategies for enhancement of S. cerevisiae and Escherichia coli strains performance have been identified. Such in silico predictions using genome-scale models provide valuable guidance for conducting in vivo metabolic engineering experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721-302, India

    K. P. Lisha & Debasis Sarkar

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  1. K. P. Lisha
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  2. Debasis Sarkar
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Correspondence to Debasis Sarkar.

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Lisha, K.P., Sarkar, D. In silico analysis of bioethanol production from glucose/xylose mixtures during fed-batch fermentation of co-culture and mono-culture systems. Biotechnol Bioproc E 19, 879–891 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12257-014-0320-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12257-014-0320-1

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