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BackgroundRhamnolipids are potent biosurfactants with high potential for industrial applications. However, rhamnolipids are currently produced with the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa during growth on hydrophobic substrates such as plant oils. The heterologous production of rhamnolipids entails two essential advantages: Disconnecting the rhamnolipid biosynthesis from the complex quorum sensing regulation and the opportunity of avoiding pathogenic production strains, in particular P. aeruginosa. In addition, separation of rhamnolipids from fatty acids is difficult and hence costly.ResultsHere, the metabolic engineering of a rhamnolipid producing Pseudomonas putida KT2440, a strain certified as safety strain using glucose as carbon source to avoid cumbersome product purification, is reported. Notably, P. putida KT2440 features almost no changes in growth rate and lag-phase in the presence of high concentrations of rhamnolipids (> 90 g/L) in contrast to the industrially important bacteria Bacillus subtilis, Corynebacterium glutamicum, and Escherichia coli. P. putida KT2440 expressing the rhlAB-genes from P. aeruginosa PAO1 produces mono-rhamnolipids of P. aeruginosa PAO1 type (mainly C10:C10). The metabolic network was optimized in silico for rhamnolipid synthesis from glucose. In addition, a first genetic optimization, the removal of polyhydroxyalkanoate formation as competing pathway, was implemented. The final strain had production rates in the range of P. aeruginosa PAO1 at yields of about 0.15 g/gglucose corresponding to 32% of the theoretical optimum. What's more, rhamnolipid production was independent from biomass formation, a trait that can be exploited for high rhamnolipid production without high biomass formation.ConclusionsA functional alternative to the pathogenic rhamnolipid producer P. aeruginosa was constructed and characterized. P. putida KT24C1 pVLT31_rhlAB featured the highest yield and titer reported from heterologous rhamnolipid producers with glucose as carbon source. Notably, rhamnolipid production was uncoupled from biomass formation, which allows optimal distribution of resources towards rhamnolipid synthesis. The results are discussed in the context of rational strain engineering by using the concepts of synthetic biology like chassis cells and orthogonality, thereby avoiding the complex regulatory programs of rhamnolipid production existing in the natural producer P. aeruginosa.

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A high-cell-density fed-batch fermentation for the production of heterologous proteins in Escherichia coli was developed using the positively regulated Escherichia coli rhaBAD promoter. The expression system was improved by reducing of the amount of expensive L-rhamnose necessary for induction of the rhamnose promoter and by increasing the vector stability. Consumption of the inducer L-rhamnose was inhibited by inactivation of L-rhamnulose kinase encoding gene rhaB of Escherichia coli W3110, responsible for the first irreversible step in rhamnose catabolism. Plasmid instability caused by multimerization of the expression vector in the recombination-proficient W3110 was prevented by insertion of the multimer resolution site cer from the ColE1 plasmid into the vector. Fermentation experiments with the optimized system resulted in the production of 100 g x L(-1) cell dry weight and 3.8 g x L(-1) of recombinant L-N-carbamoylase, an enzyme, which is needed for the production of enantiomeric pure amino acids in a two-step reaction from hydantoins.

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Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) of the ω-3 and ω-6 class (e.g., α-linolenic acid, linoleic acid) are essential for maintaining biofunctions in mammalians like humans. Due to the fact that humans cannot synthesize these essential fatty acids, they must be taken up from different food sources. Classical sources for these fatty acids are porcine liver and fish oil. However, microbial lipids or single cell oils, produced by oleaginous microorganisms such as algae, fungi and bacteria, are a promising source as well. These single cell oils can be used for many valuable chemicals with applications not only for nutrition but also for fuels and are therefore an ideal basis for a bio-based economy. A crucial point for the establishment of microbial lipids utilization is the cost-effective production and purification of fuels or products of higher value. The fermentative production can be realized by submerged (SmF) or solid state fermentation (SSF). The yield and the composition of the obtained microbial lipids depend on the type of fermentation and the particular conditions (e.g., medium, pH-value, temperature, aeration, nitrogen source). From an economical point of view, waste or by-product streams can be used as cheap and renewable carbon and nitrogen sources. In general, downstream processing costs are one of the major obstacles to be solved for full economic efficiency of microbial lipids. For the extraction of lipids from microbial biomass cell disruption is most important, because efficiency of cell disruption directly influences subsequent downstream operations and overall extraction efficiencies. A multitude of cell disruption and lipid extraction methods are available, conventional as well as newly emerging methods, which will be described and discussed in terms of large scale applicability, their potential in a modern biorefinery and their influence on product quality. Furthermore, an overview is given about applications of microbial lipids or derived fatty acids with emphasis on food applications.

Four extracellular glycolip id s p rod u ced under g r o w th -lim itin g c o n d itio n s w ere iso la ted from the culture broth o f Pseudomonas spec. D SM 2874. A fter p u r ific a tio n by c o lu m n and th ick -la y er chrom atography they were id en tified as a n io n ic rh a m n o lip id s. 'H and '3C -N M R stu d ie s sh o w e d that two o f these, /? (/? (2 -0 -a -L -rh a m n o p y ra n o sy lo x y )d eca n o y l)d eca n o ic a cid and /?(/?(2-0-a-Lrh a m n o p y ran osyl-x-L -rh am n op yran osyloxy)d ecan oyloxy)d ecan oic acid , w ere id en tica l w ith c o m pounds described previously, w h ile the other m ore h y d r o p h ilic c o m p o u n d s, /? (2 -0 -a -L -r h a m n op yranosyloxy)decanoic acid and /? (2 -0 -a -L -r h a m n o p y ra n o sy l-ix -L -rh a m n o p y ra n o sy lo x y )d e ca n o ic acid, were new com pounds. Surface and interfacial activity o f the organic crude extract and o f the purified com ponents were determined in different aqueous solutions. The pH -dependence o f surface and interfacial properties o f the two previously described rham nolipids (4, 20. 23) were exam ined in TeorellStenhagen-buffer (supplemented with 10% N aC l) at pH 3.0 and pH 9.0. All rham nolipids reduced the surface-tension from 72 to about 30 m N / m and the interfacial-tension from 42 to about 1 m N /m . The critical m icelle concentrations were o f the order o f 5 to 200 mg/1 depending on the structure o f the molecule.