title: Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the de novo production of ethylene glycol from glucose.
abstract: Development of sustainable biological process for the production of bulk chemicals from renewable feedstock is an important goal of white biotechnology. Ethylene glycol (EG) is a large-volume commodity chemical with an annual production of over 20 million tons, and it is currently produced exclusively by petrochemical route. Herein, we report a novel biosynthetic route to produce EG from glucose by the extension of serine synthesis pathway of Corynebacterium glutamicum. The EG synthesis is achieved by the reduction of glycoaldehyde derived from serine. The transformation of serine to glycoaldehyde is catalyzed either by the sequential enzymatic deamination and decarboxylation or by the enzymatic decarboxylation and oxidation. We screened the corresponding enzymes and optimized the production strain by combinatorial optimization and metabolic engineering. The best engineered C. glutamicum strain is able to accumulate 3.5 g/L of EG with the yield of 0.25 mol/mol glucose in batch cultivation. This study lays the basis for developing an efficient biological process for EG production.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Chemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua Innovation Center in Dongguan, Dongguan 523808, China. Electronic address: zhenchen2013@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Chemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Jinhai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Chemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Applied Chemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua Innovation Center in Dongguan, Dongguan 523808, China.
authors.forename: Dehua
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D048230:Corynebacterium glutamicum / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D019855:Ethylene Glycol / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D012694:Serine / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D012694:Serine; D019855:Ethylene Glycol; D005947:Glucose
keywords: Ethylene glycol; Metabolic engineering; Pathway optimization; Serine