Comparative engineering of Escherichia coli for cellobiose utilization: Hydrolysis versus phosphorolysis.
Microbial biocatalysts capable of cellobiose assimilation are of interest in bioconversion of cellulosic materials. This study provides a careful comparison in the two mechanisms of cellobiose assimilation, hydrolysis versus phosphorolysis, between two otherwise isogenic E. coli strains. Relative to cells assimilating cellobiose hydrolytically, phosphorolysis cells tolerated common inhibitors better under both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. Additionally, phosphorolysis cells were able to direct the favorable energy metabolism to recombinant protein production, resulting in up to five fold more recombinant proteins. In a mixed sugar fermentation (5% (w/v) cellobiose+5.0% (w/v) xylose), however, xylose utilization in phosphorolysis cells came to a complete halt after only about 60% consumption whereas the hydrolysis cells were able to ferment both sugars to near completion. These results provide insights into the new metabolic engineering strategy. To our best knowledge, this is the first comparison study in E. coli on the two cellobiose assimilation mechanisms.
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100, United States.
Hyun-Dong
HD
Shin
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100, United States.
Jianrong
J
Wu
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100, United States. Electronic address: rchen@chbe.gatech.edu.
Rachel
R
Chen
D000332:Aerobiosis / Q000235:genetics; D002475:Cellobiose / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D060847:Metabolic Engineering; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014994:Xylose / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D002475:Cellobiose; D014994:Xylose
Biomass technology; Cellobiose phosphorolysis; Cellulose bioconversion; E. coli