Metabolic pairing of aerobic and anaerobic production in a one-pot batch cultivation

Abstract

BackgroundThe versatility of microbial metabolic pathways enables their utilization in vast number of applications. However, the electron and carbon recovery rates, essentially constrained by limitations of cell energetics, are often too low in terms of process feasibility. Cocultivation of divergent microbial species in a single process broadens the metabolic landscape and thus, the possibilities for more complete carbon and energy utilization.ResultsIn this study, we integrated the metabolisms of two bacteria, an obligate anaerobe Clostridium butyricum and an obligate aerobe Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1. In the process, a glucose-negative mutant of A. baylyi ADP1 first deoxidized the culture allowing C. butyricum to grow and produce hydrogen from glucose. In the next phase, ADP1 produced long chain alkyl esters utilizing the by-products of C. butyricum, namely acetate and butyrate.ConclusionsThe cocultivation of strictly anaerobic and aerobic bacteria allowed the production of both hydrogen gas and long-chain alkyl esters in a simple one-pot batch process. The study demonstrates the potential of ‘metabolic pairing’ using designed microbial consortia for optimal electron and carbon recovery.

Alkane and wax ester production from lignin‐related aromatic compounds

“…More recently, an optimized alkane production pathway was integrated in the strain (Lehtinen, Virtanen, et al, ). Microbial wax esters and alkanes have previously been produced using carbon sources such as glucose and organic acids (Cao et al, ; Fatma et al, ; Kannisto, Aho, Karp, & Santala, ; Lehtinen, Efimova, et al, ; Lehtinen, Efimova, et al, ; Lehtinen, Santala, et al, ; Salmela, Lehtinen, Efimova, Santala, & Mangayil, ; Santala, Efimova, Karp, & Santala, ; Santala, Efimova, & Santala, ; Schirmer, Rude, Li, Popova, & del Cardayre, ).…”

Enhanced Population Control in Synthetic Bacterial Consortium by Interconnected Carbon Cross-Feeding

“…In contrast to Ar:Eg, the long and stable production window demonstrated by Akr:Ekg for up to 40 h underlined how the two-way cross-feeding system stabilized the distributed circuit also against external factors (modeled by sfGFP's pH sensitivity) and internal variability (represented by mScarlet's long maturation time). Unlike the cross-feeding system presented in this work, where neither of the strains grows directly on the provided substrate, many cross-feeding concepts have involved a one-way coupling of carbon flow, where one of the strains grows on the supplied substrate and the other one grows on products of the initially growing strain (4,11,17,28). Theoretically such one-way carbon flow can result in constant and unique strain ratios, analogous to eq 2, and published performances of such consortia also point at stable functioning.…”

“…In this study, our aim was to model and construct a synthetic consortium with an interconnected crossfeeding system that is solely based on the cooperative utilization of a single carbon source. We employed as hosts Escherichia coli K-12 and the soil bacterium Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1, which has been previously used both in synthetic microbial consortia (17,27,28) and in production of industrially relevant compounds from various substrates (29)(30)(31). In order to implement the cross-feeding between E. coli and A. baylyi ADP1, both strains were engineered to be incapable of glucose utilization alone.…”

Wax ester production in nitrogen-rich conditions by metabolically engineeredAcinetobacter baylyiADP1

“…WEs have been previously produced by A. baylyi ADP1 from various carbon sources, including alkanes (Ishige et al, 2002), glucose (Kannisto et al, 2017; Lehtinen et al, 2018a), acetate and butyrate (Salmela et al, 2018). However, WE production from nitrogen-rich substrates has not been described, possibly due to the requirement of nitrogen limitation to induce lipid accumulation.…”