metabolic engineering
Genetics and Molecular BiologyA CRISPR/Anti-CRISPR Genome Editing Approach Underlines the Synergy of Butanol Dehydrogenases in Clostridium acetobutylicum DSM 792An efficient CRISPR-Cas9 editing tool based on a previous two-plasmid system was developed for Clostridium acetobutylicum and used to investigate the contribution of chromosomal butanol dehydrogenase genes during solventogenesis. Thanks to the control of cas9 expression by inducible promoters and of Cas9-guide RNA (gRNA) complex activity by an anti-CRISPR...
Biotechnology | SpotlightExploiting the Diversity of Saccharomycotina Yeasts To Engineer Biotin-Independent Growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiaeThe reported metabolic engineering strategy to enable optimal growth in the absence of biotin is of direct relevance for large-scale industrial applications of S. cerevisiae. Important benefits of biotin prototrophy include cost reduction during the preparation of chemically defined industrial growth media as well as a lower susceptibility of biotin-prototrophic...
BiotechnologyCombining Random Mutagenesis and Metabolic Engineering for Enhanced Tryptophan Production in Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803Aromatic amino acids such as tryptophan are primarily used as additives in the animal feed industry and are typically produced using genetically engineered heterotrophic organisms such as Escherichia coli. This involves a two-step process, where the substrate such as molasses is first obtained from plants followed by fermentation by heterotrophic organisms. We have...
BiotechnologyMultistep Metabolic Engineering of Bacillus licheniformis To Improve Pulcherriminic Acid ProductionPulcherriminic acid is a cyclodipeptide derived from cyclo(l-Leu–l-Leu), which shares the same iron chelation group with hydroxamate sidephores. Generally, pulcherriminic acid-producing strains could be the perfect candidates for antibacterial and anti-plant-pathogenic fungal agents. In this study, we obtained the promising W4/pHY-yvmA pulcherriminic acid-producing strain via a...
BiotechnologyMechanism of Tolerance to the Lignin-Derived Inhibitor p-Benzoquinone and Metabolic Modification of Biorefinery Fermentation StrainsThis study advances our understanding of BQ inhibition behavior and the mechanism of microbial tolerance to this inhibitor and identifies the key genes responsible for BQ detoxification. The insights here into BQ toxicity and tolerance provide the basis for future synthetic biology to engineer industrial fermentation strains with enhanced BQ tolerance.
BiotechnologyCRISPR/Cas9-Assisted Seamless Genome Editing in Lactobacillus plantarum and Its Application in N-Acetylglucosamine ProductionCRISPR/Cas9-assisted recombineering is restricted in lactic acid bacteria because of the lack of available antibiotics and vectors. In this study, a seamless genome editing method was carried out in Lactobacillus plantarum using CRISPR/Cas9-assisted double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) recombineering, and recombination efficiency was effectively...
Biotechnology | SpotlightImproved n-Butanol Production from Clostridium cellulovorans by Integrated Metabolic and Evolutionary EngineeringDue to a lack of genetic tools, Clostridium cellulovorans DSM 743B has not been comprehensively explored as a putative strain platform for n-butanol production by consolidated bioprocessing (CBP). Based on the previous study of genetic tools, strain engineering of C. cellulovorans for the...
BiotechnologyBioprospecting of Native Efflux Pumps To Enhance Furfural Tolerance in Ethanologenic Escherichia coliLignocellulosic biomass, especially agricultural residues, represents an important potential feedstock for microbial production of renewable fuels and chemicals. During the deconstruction of hemicellulose by thermochemical processes, side products that inhibit cell growth and production, such as furan aldehydes, are generated, limiting cost-effective lignocellulose conversion. Here, we developed a new approach to increase cellular...
Biodegradation | SpotlightRapid, Parallel Identification of Catabolism Pathways of Lignin-Derived Aromatic Compounds in Novosphingobium aromaticivoransThe identification of the genes involved in specific biochemical transformations is a key step in predicting microbial function from nucleic acid sequences and in engineering microbes to endow them with new functions. We have shown that new techniques for transposon mutagenesis can dramatically simplify this process and enable the rapid identification of genes in uncharacterized pathways. These techniques provide the necessary scale to...