Final Report - Systems biology of Rhodococcus opacus to enable production of fuels and chemicals from lignocellulos

Technical Report · Fri Nov 30 04:00:00 EST 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1483375· OSTI ID:1483375

Dantas, Gautam ^[1]; Foston, Marcus ^[2]; Moon, Tae Seok ^[2]

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1. Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States); Washington University
2. Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)

We have developed Rhodococcus opacus PD630 (hereafter R. opacus) as a chassis for lignocellulose valorization and biofuel production. Specifically, we completed adaptive evolution of R. opacus to increase tolerance and growth on mixtures of model lignin breakdown products (LBPs) and isolated adapted strains that showed up to 1900% growth improvement and up to a 225% increase in lipid titer. We identified genomic, transcriptomic, and lipidomic changes in adapted mutants that may increase phenolic tolerance and identified phenolic transporters and degradation pathways. We developed genetic tools for gene expression, gene insertions, gene knockouts, and targeted gene repression. These tools were applied to characterize aromatic transporters and aromatic degradation pathways. In addition to model LBPs, we have optimized a feedstock-independent thermochemical lignin depolymerization process for subsequent degradation by R. opacus and have determined the preferred phenolic substrates for R. opacus consumption. Overall, this project has contributed to the goal of renewable biofuel and chemical production from lignocellulose by increasing the efficiency of model LBP degradation and lipid production; identifying preferential conditions for lignin depolymerization; characterizing preferred LBP substrates; identifying degradation pathways; and developing tools for further characterization and engineering of R. opacus.

• Research Organization: Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) (SC-21)
• DOE Contract Number: SC0012705
• OSTI ID: 1483375
• Report Number(s): DOE-WUSTL--12705
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES