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Robertz S, Philipp M, Schipper K, Richter P, Miebach K, Magnus J, Pauly M, Ramírez V. Monitoring corn stover processing by the fungus Ustilago maydis. BIORESOUR BIOPROCESS 2024; 11:87. [PMID: 39276241 PMCID: PMC11401804 DOI: 10.1186/s40643-024-00802-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2024] [Accepted: 08/30/2024] [Indexed: 09/16/2024] Open
Abstract
A key aspect of sustainable bioeconomy is the recirculation of renewable, agricultural waste streams as substrates for microbial production of high-value compounds. One approach is the bioconversion of corn stover, an abundant maize crop byproduct, using the fungal maize pathogen Ustilago maydis. U. maydis is already used as a unicellular biocatalyst in the production of several industrially-relevant compounds using plant biomass hydrolysates. In this study, we demonstrate that U. maydis can grow using untreated corn stover as its sole carbon source. We developed a small-scale bioreactor platform to investigate U. maydis processing of corn stover, combining online monitoring of fungal growth and metabolic activity profiles with biochemical analyses of the pre- and post-fermentation residues. Our results reveal that U. maydis primarily utilizes soluble sugars i.e., glucose, sucrose and fructose present in corn stover, with only limited exploitation of the abundant lignocellulosic carbohydrates. Thus, we further explored the biotechnological potential of enhancing U. maydis´ lignocellulosic utilization. Additive performance improvements of up to 120 % were achieved when using a maize mutant with increased biomass digestibility, co-fermentation with a commercial cellulolytic enzyme cocktail, and exploiting engineered fungal strains expressing diverse lignocellulose-degrading enzymes. This work represents a key step towards scaling up the production of sustainable compounds from corn stover using U. maydis and provides a tool for the detailed monitoring of the fungal processing of plant biomass substrates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Robertz
- Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 53435, Jülich, Germany
| | - Magnus Philipp
- Institute for Microbiology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 53435, Jülich, Germany
- Institute for Biotechnology and Foodscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7034, Gløshaugen, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Kerstin Schipper
- Institute for Microbiology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 53435, Jülich, Germany
| | - Paul Richter
- Aachener Verfahrenstechnik - Chair of Biochemical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52074, Aachen, Germany
- Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 53435, Jülich, Germany
| | - Katharina Miebach
- Aachener Verfahrenstechnik - Chair of Biochemical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52074, Aachen, Germany
- Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 53435, Jülich, Germany
| | - Jorgen Magnus
- Aachener Verfahrenstechnik - Chair of Biochemical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52074, Aachen, Germany
- Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 53435, Jülich, Germany
| | - Markus Pauly
- Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 53435, Jülich, Germany
| | - Vicente Ramírez
- Institute for Plant Cell Biology and Biotechnology, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany.
- Bioeconomy Science Center (BioSC), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 53435, Jülich, Germany.
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Varriale L, Geib D, Ulber R. Short-term adaptation as a tool to improve bioethanol production using grass press-juice as fermentation medium. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2024; 108:393. [PMID: 38916650 PMCID: PMC11199226 DOI: 10.1007/s00253-024-13224-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Revised: 06/03/2024] [Accepted: 06/04/2024] [Indexed: 06/26/2024]
Abstract
Grass raw materials collected from grasslands cover more than 30% of Europe's agricultural area. They are considered very attractive for the production of different biochemicals and biofuels due to their high availability and renewability. In this study, a perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) was exploited for second-generation bioethanol production. Grass press-cake and grass press-juice were separated using mechanical pretreatment, and the obtained juice was used as a fermentation medium. In this work, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was utilized for bioethanol production using the grass press-juice as the sole fermentation medium. The yeast was able to release about 11 g/L of ethanol in 72 h, with a total production yield of 0.38 ± 0.2 gEthanol/gsugars. It was assessed to improve the fermentation ability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae by using the short-term adaptation. For this purpose, the yeast was initially propagated in increasing the concentration of press-juice. Then, the yeast cells were re-cultivated in 100%(v/v) fresh juice to verify if it had improved the fermentation efficiency. The fructose conversion increased from 79 to 90%, and the ethanol titers reached 18 g/L resulting in a final yield of 0.50 ± 0.06 gEthanol/gsugars with a volumetric productivity of 0.44 ± 0.00 g/Lh. The overall results proved that short-term adaptation was successfully used to improve bioethanol production with S. cerevisiae using grass press-juice as fermentation medium. KEY POINTS: • Mechanical pretreatment of grass raw materials • Production of bioethanol using grass press-juice as fermentation medium • Short-term adaptation as a tool to improve the bioethanol production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ludovica Varriale
- Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Division of Bioprocess Engineering, Rhein-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern-Landau, Gottlieb-Daimler-Str. 49, 67663, Kaiserslautern, Germany
| | - Doris Geib
- Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Division of Bioprocess Engineering, Rhein-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern-Landau, Gottlieb-Daimler-Str. 49, 67663, Kaiserslautern, Germany
| | - Roland Ulber
- Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, Division of Bioprocess Engineering, Rhein-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern-Landau, Gottlieb-Daimler-Str. 49, 67663, Kaiserslautern, Germany.
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Oehlenschläger K, Schepp E, Stiefelmaier J, Holtmann D, Ulber R. Simultaneous fermentation and enzymatic biocatalysis-a useful process option? BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR BIOFUELS AND BIOPRODUCTS 2024; 17:67. [PMID: 38796486 PMCID: PMC11128117 DOI: 10.1186/s13068-024-02519-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2024] [Accepted: 05/16/2024] [Indexed: 05/28/2024]
Abstract
Biotransformation with enzymes and de novo syntheses with whole-cell biocatalysts each have specific advantages. These can be combined to achieve processes with optimal performance. A recent approach is to perform bioconversion processes and enzymatic catalysis simultaneously in one-pot. This is a well-established process in the biorefinery, where starchy or cellulosic material is degraded enzymatically and simultaneously used as substrate for microbial cultivations. This procedure leads to a number of advantages like saving in time but also in the needed equipment (e.g., reaction vessels). In addition, the inhibition or side-reaction of high sugar concentrations can be overcome by combining the processes. These benefits of coupling microbial conversion and enzymatic biotransformation can also be transferred to other processes for example in the sector of biofuel production or in the food industry. However, finding a compromise between the different requirements of the two processes is challenging in some cases. This article summarises the latest developments and process variations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katharina Oehlenschläger
- Institute of Bioprocess Engineering, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße 49, 67663, Kaiserslautern, Germany
| | - Emily Schepp
- Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstraße 12, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Judith Stiefelmaier
- Institute of Bioprocess Engineering, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße 49, 67663, Kaiserslautern, Germany
| | - Dirk Holtmann
- Institute of Process Engineering in Life Sciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Kaiserstraße 12, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany
| | - Roland Ulber
- Institute of Bioprocess Engineering, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße 49, 67663, Kaiserslautern, Germany.
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Gu S, Zhu F, Zhang L, Wen J. Mid-Long Chain Dicarboxylic Acid Production via Systems Metabolic Engineering: Progress and Prospects. JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY 2024; 72:5555-5573. [PMID: 38442481 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.4c00002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/07/2024]
Abstract
Mid-to-long-chain dicarboxylic acids (DCAi, i ≥ 6) are organic compounds in which two carboxylic acid functional groups are present at the terminal position of the carbon chain. These acids find important applications as structural components and intermediates across various industrial sectors, including organic compound synthesis, food production, pharmaceutical development, and agricultural manufacturing. However, conventional petroleum-based DCA production methods cause environmental pollution, making sustainable development challenging. Hence, the demand for eco-friendly processes and renewable raw materials for DCA production is rising. Owing to advances in systems metabolic engineering, new tools from systems biology, synthetic biology, and evolutionary engineering can now be used for the sustainable production of energy-dense biofuels. Here, we explore systems metabolic engineering strategies for DCA synthesis in various chassis via the conversion of different raw materials into mid-to-long-chain DCAs. Subsequently, we discuss the future challenges in this field and propose synthetic biology approaches for the efficient production and successful commercialization of these acids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shanna Gu
- Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072,China
- Frontiers Science Center for Synthetic Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072,China
- SINOPEC Dalian Research Institute of Petroleum and Petrochemicals Co., Ltd, Dalian 116045, China
| | - Fuzhou Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072,China
- Frontiers Science Center for Synthetic Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072,China
| | - Lin Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072,China
- Frontiers Science Center for Synthetic Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072,China
- SINOPEC Dalian Research Institute of Petroleum and Petrochemicals Co., Ltd, Dalian 116045, China
| | - Jianping Wen
- Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072,China
- Frontiers Science Center for Synthetic Biology (Ministry of Education), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072,China
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