Metabolic engineering of Basfia succiniciproducens for the production of carbon-three compounds

Beschreibung

The recent rise of bio-succinic acid as an industrial platform chemical has brought the rumen bacterium Basfia succiniciproducens, a natural producer of this organic acid, into the focus of research. This work investigated the potential of B. succiniciproducens for the production of carbon-three chemicals from sugars. Beside the optimization of improved genetic tools, the C3 chemicals alanine, β-alanine and 3-hydroxypropionate (3-HP) were targeted. A new alanine producer, B. succiniciproducens ALA-1, exhibited good performance in the bioprocess. The next step demonstrated the proof-of-concept for β-alanine synthesis using the heterologous expression of aspartate 1 decarboxylase genes from Corynebacterium glutamicum or Vibrio natriegens. The expression of two additional genes enabled the de novo synthesis of up to 100 mg L-1 3-HP from glucose.