Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Succinic Acid Fermentation from Steam-Exploded Corn Stalk at High Solid Concentration by Recombinant Escherichia coli

Potato pomace: An efficient resource for Monascus pigments production through solid-state fermentation

Monascus pigments are the important natural additives in food industrial production. To obtain more economic pigments production processes, the present study was performed to evaluate the feasibility of using pomace resource as substrate for pigments production. Petri dish fermentation was designed to seek the optimal process parameters, and the value of red, yellow and total pigments per dry fermented substrate could achieve 654.6, 1268.1 and 1922.7 OD units/g, respectively. Shallow tray fermentation experiments were used for investigating the potential industrial production of pigments using potato pomace as sole carbon. The final total pigments of 200 g and 1000 g shallow tray experiments could reach 1886.9 and 1737.4 OD units/g. The results in this work indicating that potato pomace could be an efficient and low cost substrate for the production of Monascus pigments, and will supply a valuable reference for the comprehensive utilization of potato resources and seeking the economical natural pigments process.

Efficient production of succinic acid from herbal extraction residue hydrolysate

In this study, six different herbal-extraction residues were evaluated for succinic acid production in terms of chemical composition before and after dilute acid pretreatment (DAP) and sugar release performance. Chemical composition showed that pretreated residues of Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch (GUR) and Morus alba L. (MAR) had the highest cellulose content, 50% and 52%, respectively. Higher concentrations of free sugars (71.6 g/L total sugar) and higher hydrolysis yield (92%) were both obtained under 40 FPU/g DM at 10% solid loading for GUR. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), GUR was found to show a less compact structure due to process of extraction. Specifically, the fibers in pretreated GUR were coarse and disordered compared with that of GUR indicated by SEM. Finally, 65 g/L succinic acid was produced with a higher yield of 0.89 g/g total sugar or 0.49 g/g GUR. Our results illustrate the potential of GUR for succinic acid production.

Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for efficient production of succinate from lignocellulosic hydrolysate

BACKGROUND

Succinate has been recognized as one of the most important bio-based building block chemicals due to its numerous potential applications. However, efficient methods for the production of succinate from lignocellulosic feedstock were rarely reported. Nevertheless, Corynebacterium glutamicum was engineered to efficiently produce succinate from glucose in our previous study.

RESULTS

In this work, C. glutamicum was engineered for efficient succinate production from lignocellulosic hydrolysate. First, xylose utilization of C. glutamicum was optimized by heterologous expression of xylA and xylB genes from different sources. Next, xylA and xylB from Xanthomonas campestris were selected among four candidates to accelerate xylose consumption and cell growth. Subsequently, the optimal xylA and xylB were co-expressed in C. glutamicum strain SAZ3 (ΔldhAΔptaΔpqoΔcatP_sod-ppcP_sod-pyc) along with genes encoding pyruvate carboxylase, citrate synthase, and a succinate exporter to achieve succinate production from xylose in a two-stage fermentation process. Xylose utilization and succinate production were further improved by overexpressing the endogenous tkt and tal genes and introducing araE from Bacillus subtilis. The final strain C. glutamicum CGS5 showed an excellent ability to produce succinate in two-stage fermentations by co-utilizing a glucose-xylose mixture under anaerobic conditions. A succinate titer of 98.6 g L^-1 was produced from corn stalk hydrolysate with a yield of 0.87 g/g total substrates and a productivity of 4.29 g L^-1 h^-1 during the anaerobic stage.

CONCLUSION

This work introduces an efficient process for the bioconversion of biomass into succinate using a thoroughly engineered strain of C. glutamicum. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest titer of succinate produced from non-food lignocellulosic feedstock, which highlights that the biosafety level 1 microorganism C. glutamicum is a promising platform for the envisioned lignocellulosic biorefinery.

Effects of high solid concentrations on the efficacy of enzymatic hydrolysis of yeast cells and the taste characteristics of the resulting hydrolysates

Effects of solid concentrations on enzymatic hydrolysis of yeast cells and the taste characteristics of the resulting hydrolysates were examined. Results showed that increased solid concentrations ranging from 10% to 30% resulted in a mild increase in degree of hydrolysis (DH) of hydrolysates during the whole hydrolysis process, whereas an obvious inhibition effect on DH was found at hydrolysates with 40% of solid concentration. The levels of amino nitrogen and total nitrogen of supernatant with 40% of solid concentration were six‐fold higher than those of hydrolysates with 10% of solid concentration at all hydrolysis time. After 21 h of hydrolysis, there was no significant difference in molecular weight distributions of hydrolysates with different solid concentrations, while a significant increase in amino acid contents of hydrolysates with high solid concentrations was found. Results from sensory evaluation showed that the intensities of umami, mouthfulness and continuity in umami solution could be significantly improved by supplementing with the resulting hydrolysates with high solid concentrations.

Ionic liquid pretreatment to increase succinic acid production from lignocellulosic biomass

In this study, pinewood and corn stover pretreated with the ionic liquid (IL) 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (AmimCl) were used as a feedstock for succinic acid production. Results reveal that 5% (v/v) AmimCl inhibited bacterial growth, whereas 0.01% (v/v) AmimCl inhibited succinic acid production. AmimCl was effective in extracting cellulose from pinewood and in degrading pinewood into a uniform pulp, as revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The rate of enzymatic hydrolysis of pinewood extract reached 72.16%. The combinations of AmimCl pretreatment with steam explosion or with hot compressed water were effective in treating corn stover, whereas AmimCl treatment alone did not result in a significant improvement. Pinewood extract produced 20.7g/L succinic acid with an average yield of 0.37g per gram of biomass. Workflow calculations indicated pine wood pretreated with IL has a theoretical yield of succinic acid of 57.1%. IL pretreatment led to increase in succinic acid yields.