Abstract
Shimwellia blattae is an enteric bacterium and produces endogenous enzymes that convert 1,2-propanediol (1,2-PD) to 1-propanol, which is expected to be used as a fuel substitute and a precursor of polypropylene. Therefore, if S. blattae could be induced to generate its own 1,2-PD from sugars, it might be possible to produce 1-propanol from sugars with this microorganism. Here, two 1,2-PD production pathways were constructed in S. blattae, resulting in two methods for 1-propanol production with the bacterium. One method employed the L-rhamnose utilization pathway, in which L-rhamnose is split into dihydroxyacetone phosphate and 1,2-PD. When wild-type S. blattae was cultured with L-rhamnose, an accumulation of 1,2-PD was observed. The other method for producing 1,2-PD was to introduce an engineered 1,2-PD production pathway from glucose into S. blattae. In both cases, the produced 1,2-PD was then converted to 1-propanol by 1,2-PD converting enzymes, whose production was induced by the addition of glycerol.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, no. 23380051 (to MK), from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and by the Advanced Low Carbon Technology Research and Development Program (ALCA) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
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Urano, N., Fujii, M., Kaino, H. et al. Fermentative production of 1-propanol from sugars using wild-type and recombinant Shimwellia blattae . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 2001–2008 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-014-6330-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-014-6330-2