Metabolic Engineering of <i>Zymomonas mobilis</i> for Xylonic Acid Production from Lignocellulosic Hydrolysate

Bio-based xylonic acid produced from inexpensive lignocellulosic biomass has enormous market potential and enhances the overall economic benefits of biorefinery processes. In this study, the introduction of genes encoding xylose dehydrogenase driven by the promoter P<i>pdc</i> into <i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Banrui Ruan, Xiongying Yan, Zhaoqing He, Qiaoning He, Shihui Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Fermentation
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2311-5637/11/3/141
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Bio-based xylonic acid produced from inexpensive lignocellulosic biomass has enormous market potential and enhances the overall economic benefits of biorefinery processes. In this study, the introduction of genes encoding xylose dehydrogenase driven by the promoter P<i>pdc</i> into <i>Z. mobilis</i> using a plasmid vector resulted in the accumulation of xylonic acid at a titer of 16.8 ± 1.6 g/L. To achieve stable xylonic acid production, a gene cassette for xylonic acid production was integrated into the genome at the chromosomal locus of <i>ZMO0038</i> and <i>ZMO1650</i> using the endogenous type I-F CRISPR-Cas system. The titer of the resulting recombinant strain XA3 reduced to 12.2 ± 0.56 g/L, which could be the copy number difference between the plasmid and chromosomal integration. Oxygen content was then identified to be the key factor for xylonic acid production. To further increase xylonic acid production capability, a recombinant strain, XA9, with five copies of a gene cassette for xylonic acid production was constructed by integrating the gene cassette into the genome at the chromosomal locus of <i>ZMO1094</i>, <i>ZMO1547</i>, and <i>ZMO1577</i> on the basis of XA3. The titer of xylonic acid increased to 51.9 ± 0.1 g/L with a maximum yield of 1.10 g/g, which is close to the theoretical yield in a pure sugar medium. In addition, the recombinant strain XA9 is genetically stable and can produce 16.2 ± 0.14 g/L of xylonic acid with a yield of 1.03 ± 0.01 g/g in the lignocellulosic hydrolysate. Our study thus constructed a recombinant strain, XA9, of <i>Z. mobilis</i> for xylonic acid production from lignocellulosic hydrolysate, demonstrating the capability of <i>Z. mobilis</i> as a biorefinery chassis for economic lignocellulosic biochemical production.
ISSN:2311-5637