Engineered Microbial Systems for Conversion of Biomass Hydrolysates

0929893 Eiteman智力价值该项目将导致一种新的方法，用于在存在抑制剂（如乙酸）的情况下将糖混合物（戊糖和己糖）有效转化为生化产品。在拟议的工作中，这种复杂的混合物所带来的挑战是通过工程改造发生转化的微生物系统来解决的。这一概念依赖于只能代谢单一碳源（如木糖或乙酸）的微生物菌株的构建，以及使用这些“底物选择性”菌株设计有效的工艺。除了构建和表征一套底物选择性菌株外，还将开发和优化工艺，以从含有乙酸和五种主要糖的木质纤维素水解产物中产生两种模型生物化学品，乙醇和丙酮酸。更广泛的影响虽然重点将是乙醇和丙酮酸的生产，但正在开发的策略可用于任何微生物产品，甚至任何微生物，因此该研究广泛适用于许多系统。这种方法构成了一种针对复杂混合物的微生物系统工程的新方法。拟议的工作构成了分子生物学和过程工程学生，教育工作者以及高中学生之间的跨学科努力，以改善生物质的生产和加工技术。

0929893EitemanIntellectual merit This project will lead to a novel approach for the efficient conversion of sugar mixtures (pentoses and hexoses) to biochemical products in the presence of inhibitors such as acetic acid. In the proposed work the challenges this complex mixture presents are addressed by engineering the microbial system in which the conversion takes place. The concept relies on the construction of microbial strains which can only metabolize a single carbon source (such as the sugar xylose or acetic acid), and designing an efficient process using these "substrate-selective" strains. In addition to constructing and characterizing a suite of substrate-selective strains, processes will be developed and optimized to generate two model biochemicals, ethanol and pyruvate, from lignocellulosic hydrolysates which contain acetic acid and the five principal sugars.Broader impactsAlthough the focus will be ethanol and pyruvate production, the strategy being developed can be used for any microbial product and indeed any microorganism, and therefore the research is broadly applicable to numerous systems. This approach constitutes a new approach toward engineering a system of microbes for a complex mixture. The proposed work constitutes an interdisciplinary effort between molecular biology and process engineering students, educators as well as high school students toward improving production and processing technologies for the use of biomass.