Engineered Microbial Systems for Conversion of Biomass Hydrolysates

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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.