High-yield production of D-1,2,4-butanetriol from lignocellulose-derived xylose by using a synthetic enzyme cascade in a cell-free system

Efficient production of 1,2,4-butanetriol from corn cob hydrolysate by metabolically engineered Escherichia coli

Corn cob is a major waste mass-produced in corn agriculture. Corn cob hydrolysate containing xylose, arabinose, and glucose is the hydrolysis product of corn cob. Herein, a recombinant Escherichia coli strain BT-10 was constructed to transform corn cob hydrolysate into 1,2,4-butanetriol, a platform substance with diversified applications. To eliminate catabolite repression and enhance NADPH supply for alcohol dehydrogenase YqhD catalyzed 1,2,4-butanetriol generation, ptsG encoding glucose transporter EIICBGlc and pgi encoding phosphoglucose isomerase were deleted. With four heterologous enzymes including xylose dehydrogenase, xylonolactonase, xylonate dehydratase, α-ketoacid decarboxylase and endogenous YqhD, E. coli BT-10 can produce 36.63 g/L 1,2,4-butanetriol with a productivity of 1.14 g/[L·h] using xylose as substrate. When corn cob hydrolysate was used as the substrate, 43.4 g/L 1,2,4-butanetriol was generated with a productivity of 1.09 g/[L·h] and a yield of 0.9 mol/mol. With its desirable characteristics, E. coli BT-10 is a promising strain for commercial 1,2,4-butanetriol production.

Structure-guided engineering of branched-chain α-keto acid decarboxylase for improved 1,2,4-butanetriol production by in vitro synthetic enzymatic biosystem

Efficient synthetic routes for biomanufacturing chemicals often require the overcoming of pathway bottlenecks by tailoring enzymes to improve the catalytic efficiency or even implement non-native activities. 1,2,4-butanetriol (BTO), a valuable commodity chemical, is currently biosynthesized from D-xylose via a four-enzyme reaction cascade, with the ThDP-dependent α-keto acid decarboxylase (KdcA) identified as the potential bottleneck. Here, to further enhance the catalytic activity of KdcA toward the non-native substrate α-keto-3-deoxy-xylonate (KDX), in silico screening and structure-guided evolution were performed. The best mutants, S286L/G402P and V461K, exhibited a 1.8- and 2.5-fold higher enzymatic activity in the conversion of KDX to 3,4-dihydroxybutanal when compared to KdcA, respectively. MD simulations revealed that the two sets of mutations reshaped the substrate binding pocket, thereby increasing the binding affinity for KDX and promoting interactions between KDX and cofactor ThDP. Then, when the V461K mutant instead of wild type KdcA was integrated into the enzyme cascade, a 1.9-fold increase in BTO titer was observed. After optimization of the reaction conditions, the enzyme cocktail contained V461K converted 60 g/L D-xylose to 22.1 g/L BTO with a yield of 52.1 %. This work illustrated that protein engineering is a powerful tool for modifying the output of metabolic pathway.

Research progress on the application of cell-free synthesis systems for enzymatic processes

Cell-free synthesis systems can complete the transcription and translation process in vitro to produce complex proteins that are difficult to be expressed in traditional cell-based systems. Such systems also can be used for the assembly of efficient localized multienzyme cascades to synthesize products that are toxic to cells. Cell-free synthesis systems provide a simpler and faster engineering solution than living cells, allowing unprecedented design freedom. This paper reviews the latest progress on the application of cell-free synthesis systems in the field of enzymatic catalysis, including cell-free protein synthesis and cell-free metabolic engineering. In cell-free protein synthesis: complex proteins, toxic proteins, membrane proteins, and artificial proteins containing non-natural amino acids can be easily synthesized by directly controlling the reaction conditions in the cell-free system. In cell-free metabolic engineering, the synthesis of desired products can be made more specific and efficient by designing metabolic pathways and screening biocatalysts based on purified enzymes or crude extracts. Through the combination of cell-free synthesis systems and emerging technologies, such as: synthetic biology, microfluidic control, cofactor regeneration, and artificial scaffolds, we will be able to build increasingly complex biomolecule systems. In the next few years, these technologies are expected to mature and reach industrialization, providing innovative platforms for a wide range of biotechnological applications.

Kinetic modeling of xylonic acid production by Gluconobacter oxydans: effects of hydrodynamic conditions

In this study, the synthesis of xylonic acid from xylose by Gluconobacter oxydans NL71 has been investigated. According to the relationship between oxygen transfer rate and oxygen uptake rate, three different kinetic models of product formation were established and the nonlinear fitting was carried out. The results showed that G. oxydans has critical dissolved oxygen under different strain concentrations, and the relationship between respiration intensity and dissolved oxygen conformed to the Monod equation [Formula: see text]. The maximum reaction rate per unit cell mass and the theoretical maximum specific productivity of G. oxydans obtained by the kinetic model are 0.042 mol/L/h and 6.97 g/g_x/h, respectively. These results will assist in determining the best balance between the airflow rate and cell concentration in the reaction and improve the production efficiency of xylonic acid.

The Biosynthesis of D-1,2,4-Butanetriol From d-Arabinose With an Engineered Escherichia coli

D-1,2,4-Butanetriol (BT) has attracted much attention for its various applications in energetic materials and the pharmaceutical industry. Here, a synthetic pathway for the biosynthesis of BT from d-arabinose was constructed and optimized in Escherichia coli. First, E. coli Trans1-T1 was selected for the synthesis of BT. Considering the different performance of the enzymes from different organisms when expressed in E. coli, the synthetic pathway was optimized. After screening two d-arabinose dehydrogenases (ARAs), two d-arabinonate dehydratases (ADs), four 2-keto acid decarboxylases (ADXs), and three aldehyde reductases (ALRs), ADG from Burkholderia sp., AraD from Sulfolobus solfataricus, KivD from Lactococcus lactis IFPL730, and AdhP from E. coli were selected for the bio-production of BT. After 48 h of catalysis, 0.88 g/L BT was produced by the recombinant strain BT5. Once the enzymes were selected for the pathway, metabolic engineering strategy was conducted for further improvement. The final strain BT5ΔyiaEΔycdWΔyagE produced 1.13 g/L BT after catalyzing for 48 h. Finally, the fermentation conditions and characteristics of BT5ΔyiaEΔycdWΔyagE were also evaluated, and then 2.24 g/L BT was obtained after 48 h of catalysis under the optimized conditions. Our work was the first report on the biosynthesis of BT from d-arabinose which provided a potential for the large-scale production of d-glucose-based BT.

Bacterial mandelic acid degradation pathway and its application in biotechnology

Mandelic acid and its derivatives are an important class of chemical synthetic blocks, which is widely used in drug synthesis and stereochemistry research. In nature, mandelic acid degradation pathway has been widely identified and analyzed as a representative pathway of aromatic compounds degradation. The most studied mandelic acid degradation pathway from Pseudomonas putida consists of mandelate racemase, S-mandelate dehydrogenase, benzoylformate decarboxylase, benzaldehyde dehydrogenase and downstream benzoic acid degradation pathways. Because of the ability to catalyze various reactions of aromatic substrates, pathway enzymes have been widely used in biocatalysis, kinetic resolution, chiral compounds synthesis or construction of new metabolic pathways. In this paper, the physiological significance and the existing range of the mandelic acid degradation pathway were introduced first. Then each of the enzymes in the pathway is reviewed one by one, including the researches on enzymatic properties and the applications in biotechnology as well as efforts that have been made to modify the substrate specificity or improving catalytic activity by enzyme engineering to adapt different applications. The composition of the important metabolic pathway of bacterial mandelic acid degradation pathway as well as the researches and applications of pathway enzymes is summarized in this review for the first time.