Jae Hyeon Lee, Suman Lama, Jung Rae Kim, and Sung Hoon Park

​Jae Hyeon Lee, Suman Lama, Jung Rae Kim*
School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Korea
Tel: +82-51-510-2393; Fax: +82-51-510-3943; E-mail: j.kim@pusan.ac.kr
Sung Hoon Park*
School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, UNIST, Ulsan 689-798, Korea
Tel: +82-52-217-2565; Fax: +82-52-217-2309; E-mail: parksh@unist.ac.kr

Received: 14 January 2018 / Revised: 17 April 2018 / Accepted: 19 April 2018
© The Korean Society for Biotechnology and Bioengineering and Springer 2018

​Abstract

A range of recombinant strains of Escherichia coli were developed to produce 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO), an important C3 diol, from glucose. Two modules, the glycerol-producing pathway converting dihydroxyacetone phosphate to glycerol and the 1,3-PDO-producing pathway converting glycerol to 1,3-PDO, were introduced into E. coli. In addition, to avoid oxidative assimilation of the produced glycerol, glycerol oxidative pathway was deleted. Furthermore, to enhance the carbon flow to the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway, the Entner-Doudoroff pathway was disrupted by deleting 6-phosphogluconate dehydratase and 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate aldolase. Finally, the acetate production pathway was removed to minimize the production of acetate, a major and toxic by-product. Flask experiments were carried out to examine the performance of the developed recombinant E. coli. The best strain could produce 1,3-PDO with a yield of 0.47 mol/mol glucose. Along with 1,3-PDO, glycerol was produced with a yield of 0.33 mol/mol glucose.

Keywords

Escherichia coli BL21(DE3), glycerol, 1,3-PDO, pathway engineering