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4 Publications visible to you, out of a total of 4
Characterization of the Weimberg Pathway in Caulobacter crescentus

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Caulobacter crescentus is a gram-negative bacterium that can utilize xylose as a substrate using the Weimberg pathway, which converts xylose to α-ketoglutarate in five steps without carbon loss. This … is an interesting pathway for heterologous expression in other organisms in order to enable xylose utilization in biorefinery processes. C. crescentus was grown on xylose, arabinose and glucose, and maximum specific growth rates determined for the three substrates were 0.11 h−1, 0.05 h−1, and 0.15 h−1 respectively. Growth was found to be significantly inhibited at sugar concentration of 20 g L−1, shown primarily by an increased lag phase. Enzyme activity assays showed that the Weimberg pathway was active in cells grown, not only on xylose but also on arabinose. No activity was found for growth on glucose. Furthermore, substantial amounts of α-ketoglutarate—up to a yield of 0.4 g g−1—was excreted during growth on xylose, but no other extracellular intermediates in the Weimberg pathway were detected during growth on xylose. Apparently, C. crescentus is not well adapted for efficient growth on high xylose levels, and responds by an extended lag phase and secretion of α-ketoglutarate.

Authors: Henrik Almqvist, Sara Jonsdottir Glaser, Celina Tufvegren, Lisa Wasserstrom, Gunnar Lidén

Date Published: 1st Jun 2018

Publication Type: Not specified

Miniaturized and automated adaptive laboratory evolution: Evolving Corynebacterium glutamicum towards an improved d-xylose utilization.

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Adaptive Laboratory Evolution (ALE) is increasingly being used as a technique for untargeted strain optimization. This work aimed at developing an automated and miniaturized ALE approach based on … repetitive batch cultivations in microtiter plates. The new method is applied to the recently published strain Corynebacterium glutamicum pEKEx3-xylXABCDCc, which is capable of utilizing d-xylose via the Weimberg (WMB) pathway. As a result, the significantly improved strain WMB2evo was obtained, showing a specific growth rate of 0.26h-1 on d-xylose as sole carbon and energy source. WMB2evo grows stable during lab-scale bioreactor operation, demonstrating the high potential of this strain for future biorefinery applications. Genome sequencing of cell samples from two different ALE processes revealed potential key mutations, e.g. in the gene cg0196 (encoding for the transcriptional regulator IolR of the myo-inositol metabolism). These findings open up new perspectives for the rational engineering of C. glutamicum towards improved d-xylose utilization.

Authors: A. Radek, N. Tenhaef, M. F. Muller, C. Brusseler, W. Wiechert, J. Marienhagen, T. Polen, S. Noack

Date Published: 30th May 2017

Publication Type: Not specified

Formation of xylitol and xylitol-5-phosphate and its impact on growth of d-xylose-utilizing Corynebacterium glutamicum strains

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Wild-type Corynebacterium glutamicum has no endogenous metabolic activity for utilizing the lignocellulosic pentose d-xylose for cell growth. Therefore, two different engineering approaches have been … pursued resulting in platform strains harbouring a functional version of either the Isomerase (ISO) or the Weimberg (WMB) pathway for d-xylose assimilation. In a previous study we found for C. glutamicum WMB by-product formation of xylitol during growth on d-xylose and speculated that the observed lower growth rates are due to the growth inhibiting effect of this compound. Based on a detailed phenotyping of the ISO, WMB and the wild-type strain of C. glutamicum, we here show that this organism has a natural capability to synthesize xylitol from d-xylose under aerobic cultivation conditions. We furthermore observed the intracellular accumulation of xylitol-5-phosphate as a result of the intracellular phosphorylation of xylitol, which was particularly pronounced in the C. glutamicum ISO strain. Interestingly, low amounts of supplemented xylitol strongly inhibit growth of this strain on d-xylose, d-glucose and d-arabitol. These findings demonstrate that xylitol is a suitable substrate of the endogenous xylulokinase (XK, encoded by xylB) and its overexpression in the ISO strain leads to a significant phosphorylation of xylitol in C. glutamicum. Therefore, in order to circumvent cytotoxicity by xylitol-5-phosphate, the WMB pathway represents an interesting alternative route for engineering C. glutamicum towards efficient d-xylose utilization.

Authors: A. Radek, M. F. Muller, J. Gatgens, L. Eggeling, K. Krumbach, J. Marienhagen, S. Noack

Date Published: 15th Jun 2016

Publication Type: Not specified

Engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for minimized carbon loss during utilization of D-xylose containing substrates

Abstract (Expand)

Biomass-derived d-xylose represents an economically interesting substrate for the sustainable microbial production of value-added compounds. The industrially important platform organism Corynebacterium … glutamicum has already been engineered to grow on this pentose as sole carbon and energy source. However, all currently described C. glutamicum strains utilize d-xylose via the commonly known isomerase pathway that leads to a significant carbon loss in the form of CO2, in particular, when aiming for the synthesis of alpha-ketoglutarate and its derivatives (e.g. l-glutamate). Driven by the motivation to engineer a more carbon-efficient C. glutamicum strain, we functionally integrated the Weimberg pathway from Caulobacter crescentus in C. glutamicum. This five-step pathway, encoded by the xylXABCD-operon, enabled a recombinant C. glutamicum strain to utilize d-xylose in d-xylose/d-glucose mixtures. Interestingly, this strain exhibited a tri-phasic growth behavior and transiently accumulated d-xylonate during d-xylose utilization in the second growth phase. However, this intermediate of the implemented oxidative pathway was re-consumed in the third growth phase leading to more biomass formation. Furthermore, C. glutamicum pEKEx3-xylXABCDCc was also able to grow on d-xylose as sole carbon and energy source with a maximum growth rate of mumax=0.07+/-0.01h(-1). These results render C. glutamicum pEKEx3-xylXABCDCc a promising starting point for the engineering of efficient production strains, exhibiting only minimal carbon loss on d-xylose containing substrates.

Authors: A. Radek, K. Krumbach, J. Gatgens, V. F. Wendisch, W. Wiechert, M. Bott, S. Noack, J. Marienhagen

Date Published: 12th Oct 2014

Publication Type: Not specified

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