Production of biopolymer precursors beta-alanine and L-lactic acid from CO2 with metabolically versatile Rhodococcus opacus DSM 43205

Hydrogen oxidizing autotrophic bacteria are promising hosts for conversion of CO2 into chemicals. In this work, we engineered the metabolically versatile lithoautotrophic bacterium R. opacus strain DSM 43205 for synthesis of polymer precursors. Aspartate decarboxylase (panD) or lactate dehydrogenase (ldh) were expressed for beta-alanine or L-lactic acid production, respectively. The heterotrophic cultivations on glucose produced 25 mg L−1 beta-alanine and 742 mg L−1 L-lactic acid, while autotrophic cultivations with CO2, H2, and O2 resulted in the production of 1.8 mg L−1 beta-alanine and 146 mg L−1 L-lactic acid. Beta-alanine was also produced at 345 μg L−1 from CO2 in electrobioreactors, where H2 and O2 were provided by water electrolysis. This work demonstrates that R. opacus DSM 43205 can be engineered to produce chemicals from CO2 and provides a base for its further metabolic engineering.

Description

Funding Information: This work was financially supported through Academy of Finland research grants MOPED (Decision No. 295883), Optobio (Decision No. 287011) and KNALLRED (Decision No. 342124), Business Finland research grant Fermatra (Diary No. 908/31/2016) and a joint research grant by the Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation and the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation on “Feed and food from CO and electricity—the research and piloting of future protein production.” PJ and ML would like to acknowledge funding from the Academy of Finland (decision numbers 310514 and 321723, respectively). 2 Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Salusjärvi, Ojala, Peddinti, Lienemann, Jouhten, Pitkänen and Toivari.

Keywords

beta-alanine, carbon dioxide, gas fermentation, hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria, L-lactic acid, lithoautotrophic, Rhodococcus opacus

DOI

10.3389/fbioe.2022.989481

Citation

Salusjärvi , L , Ojala , L , Peddinti , G , Lienemann , M , Jouhten , P , Pitkänen , J-P & Toivari , M 2022 , ' Production of biopolymer precursors beta-alanine and L-lactic acid from CO 2 with metabolically versatile Rhodococcus opacus DSM 43205 ' , Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology , vol. 10 , 989481 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.989481

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202211096476

Collections

[article-cris] Kemian tekniikan korkeakoulu / CHEM

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