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Microbial removal of acetate selectively from sugar mixtures

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Acetic acid is an unavoidable constituent of the biomass hydrolysates generated from acetylated hemicellulose and lignin, and acetate affects the performance of microbes used to convert these hydrolysates into biofuels or other biochemicals. In this study, acetate was selectively removed from synthetic mixtures of glucose and xylose using metabolically engineered Escherichia coli strains having mutations in the glucose phosphotransferase system (PTS) genes (ptsG, manZ, crr), glucokinase (glk), and xylose (xylA). In batch culture, ALS1060 (ptsG manZ glk xylA) consumed exclusively acetate to depletion, and then consumed the two sugars only at a very slow rate (a growth rate of about 0.01 h−1). We also examined the effects of an additional knockout of either malX, fruA, fruB, bglF, or crr, genes that are involved in other PTSs, and a batch process using KD840 (ptsG manZ glk crr xylA) demonstrated a further reduction in glucose or xylose consumption by E. coli. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using a substrate-selective approach for the pre-treatment of biomass hydrolysate for microbial processes.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research (CPBR), the National Science Foundation (CBET-0929893), and the Georgia Experiment Station. We also acknowledge S. A. Lee and R. Altman for technical assistance.

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Author notes

  1. Elliot Altman

    Present address: Department of Biology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 37132, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Molecular BioEngineering, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA

    Arun Lakshmanaswamy, Eashwar Rajaraman, Mark A. Eiteman & Elliot Altman

Authors
  1. Arun Lakshmanaswamy
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  2. Eashwar Rajaraman
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  3. Mark A. Eiteman
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  4. Elliot Altman
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Correspondence to Mark A. Eiteman.

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Lakshmanaswamy, A., Rajaraman, E., Eiteman, M.A. et al. Microbial removal of acetate selectively from sugar mixtures. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 38, 1477–1484 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-010-0932-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-010-0932-1

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