Novel Engineered E. coli Biocatalysts for Biofuel and Biochemicals Production from Pectin-Rich Biomass
- Detailed Technology Description
- Application(Product)Productionof commodity chemicals through direct fermentation of recalcitrant biomass ProblemsAddressed (benefits/advantages)Several lines ofevidence indicate that a critical current bottleneck for the fullimplementation of E. coli in the production of biofuels and commoditybiochemical directly from biomass is the ability of this or-ganisms to convertthe sugars derived from cellulose into ethanol. The strain KO11 is a currentbench-mark ethanologenic strain. The use of this strain in the production of,for instance, cellulosic ethanol, is limited by its inability to break downpectin, a component of biomass recalcitrance. Improvement of this strain todirectly metabolize recalcitrant biomass will enable its large-scale use forthe production of biofuels.The technology described here circumvents several issues stemming from biomass recalcitrance.
- *Abstract
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TechnologySummary
UGA investigatorshave developed a modification of E. coli KO11 that expresses high levelsof pectinase and oligogalacturonate and its able to degrade pectin (esterifiedor not) and utilize the saccharified biomass for the production of a commodityproduct. Specifically, the first embodiment of the invention is aimed at theproduction of ethanol from grasses and wood, in moderate to high yields,without the need to pretreat the substrate. Additionally, the genetic modificationsmade to E. coli, were also made to S. cerevisiae, also renderingthis organism with the ability to degrade pectin and produce ethanol fromnon-pretreated biomass.
Advantages
Enables the biofermentation of non-pretreated biomass by organismstraditionally used in industry for the production of cellulosic ethanol (E. coli and S. cerevisiae)
Obviates the costly and time consuming biomass pre-treatmentprocess
Subsequent modifications can be made to enable the organisms toproduce several other commodities directly from recalcitrant biomass
Applicable directly to biomass, including highly-recalcitrant,such as hardwoods
PotentialApplications
Production of biofuels and commodity chemicals by the direct degradationof biomass
Development of fermentation platform derived from the original modifiedmicroorganisms for the production of multiple commodities
Inventors
Joy D. Peterson
Technology Development and IP Status
Sub-pilot/ lab scale in high yields
Inventorsseeking to establish partnerships for scale up assessment
USIssued Patent 9,109,235
USPending Application Publication Number 20120094347 A1
- Country/Region
- USA
