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Efficient Biosynthesis of Succinate from Paper Mill Wastewater by Engineered Escherichia coli

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Abstract

A large amount of wastewater containing various organic compounds is generated in the paper-making industry. Therefore, the re-utilization of wastewater from paper-making is of great importance. In this study, acetic acid and formic acid, the dominant inhibitors existing in the paper mill wastewater, were used to produce succinate by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli strains, HB04(pTrc99a-gltA) and HB04(pTrc99a-gltA, pBAD33-Trc-fdh). The distilled paper mill wastewater could be utilized and transformed directly to succinate efficiently. However, the utilization of acetate was inhibited dramatically using raw paper mill wastewater. After adsorption by activate carbon, the acetate consumption and succinate production were improved significantly. In the resting cells experiment with high cell density (50 OD600), acetate was consumed completely and the titer of succinate reached 65.44 mM in 6 h. These results showed that the metabolically engineered E. coli strains had great potential to utilize acetic acid in the paper mill wastewater for succinate biosynthesis.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21776083), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2011AA02A203), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (22221818014). This project was also supported by the Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Bing Huang, Guochen Fang, Hui Wu, Zhimin Li & Qin Ye

  2. Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomanufacturing Technology, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Hui Wu & Zhimin Li

  3. Key Laboratory of Bio-based Material Engineering of China National Light Industry Council, 130 Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Hui Wu

  4. Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 West 7th Avenue, Tianjian Airport Economic Area, Tianjin, 300308, China

    Jibin Sun

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  1. Bing Huang
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Correspondence to Zhimin Li.

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Huang, B., Fang, G., Wu, H. et al. Efficient Biosynthesis of Succinate from Paper Mill Wastewater by Engineered Escherichia coli. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 189, 1195–1208 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-019-03066-2

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