Engineering cellulolytic bacterium Clostridium thermocellum to co-ferment cellulose- and hemicellulose-derived sugars simultaneously
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Univ. de los Andes, Bogota (Columbia)
Here, cellulose and hemicellulose are the most abundant components in plant biomass. A preferred Consolidated Bioprocessing (CBP) system is one which can directly convert both cellulose and hemicellulose into target products without adding the costly hydrolytic enzyme cocktail. In this work, the thermophilic, cellulolytic, and anaerobic bacterium, Clostridium thermocellum DSM 1313, was engineered to grow on xylose in addition to cellulose. Both xylA (encoding for xylose isomerase) and xylB (encoding for xylulokinase) genes from the thermophilic anaerobic bacterium Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus were introduced to enable xylose utilization while still retaining its inherent ability to grow on 6-carbon substrates. Targeted integration of xylAB into C. thermocellum genome realized simultaneous fermentation of xylose with glucose, with cellobiose (glucose dimer), and with cellulose, respectively, without carbon catabolite repression. We also showed that the respective H2 and ethanol production were twice as much when both xylose and cellulose were consumed simultaneously than when consuming cellulose alone. Moreover, the engineered xylose consumer can also utilize xylo-oligomers (with degree of polymerization of 2-7) in the presence of xylose. Isotopic tracer studies also revealed that the engineered xylose catabolism contributed to the production of ethanol from xylan which is a model hemicellulose in mixed sugar fermentation, demonstrating immense potential of this enhanced CBP strain in co-utilizing both cellulose and hemicellulose for the production of fuels and chemicals.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Program (EE-3F); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), NREL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD); USDOE
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308; 0627-1403
- OSTI ID:
- 1430817
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1432725
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-2700-71150
- Journal Information:
- Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 115, Issue 7; ISSN 0006-3592
- Publisher:
- WileyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Clostridial whole cell and enzyme systems for hydrogen production: current state and perspectives
|
journal | November 2018 |
Isotope-Assisted Metabolite Analysis Sheds Light on Central Carbon Metabolism of a Model Cellulolytic Bacterium Clostridium thermocellum
|
journal | August 2018 |
Consolidated bioprocessing for butanol production of cellulolytic Clostridia: development and optimization
|
journal | August 2019 |
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