cellulase and 2-3-butylene-glycol

Bacillus subtilis is a Gram-positive sporiferous bacterium widely used in a variety of industrial fields as a producer of high-quality vitamins, enzymes and proteins. Many genetic modifications and evolutionary engineering optimisations aiming at obtaining a better performing strain for its products have been studied. As genome-scale metabolic network models have gained significant popularity as effective tools in metabolic phenotype studies, we reconstructed a genome-scale metabolic network of B. subtilis-iBsu1147. The accuracy of iBsu1147 is validated by growth on various carbon sources, single gene knockout and large fragment non-essential gene knockout simulations. The model is used for the in silico metabolic engineering design of reactions over/underexpressed or knockout for increasing the production of four important products of B. subtilis: riboflavin, cellulase Egl-237, (R,R)-2,3-butanediol and isobutanol. The simulation predicted candidate reactions related to the improvement of strain performance on related products. The prediction is partly supported by previously published results. Due to the complexity of the biological system, it is difficult to manually find the factors that are not directly related to the production of the target compounds. The in silico predictions provide more choices for further strain improvement for these products.

Topics: Bacillus subtilis; Bacterial Proteins; Butanols; Butylene Glycols; Cellulase; Computer Simulation; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Gene Knockout Techniques; Metabolic Engineering; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Models, Biological; Riboflavin

The enzymatic digestibility of alkali/peracetic acid (PAA)-pretreated bagasse was systematically investigated. The effects of initial solid consistency, cellulase loading and addition of supplemental β-glucosidase on the enzymatic conversion of glycan were studied. It was found the alkali-PAA pulp showed excellent enzymatic digestibility. The enzymatic glycan conversion could reach about 80% after 24 h incubation when enzyme loading was 10 FPU/g solid. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) results indicated that the pulp could be well converted to ethanol. Compared with dilute acid pretreated bagasse (DAPB), alkali-PAA pulp could obtain much higher ethanol and xylose concentrations. The fermentation broth still showed some cellulase activity so that the fed pulp could be further converted to sugars and ethanol. After the second batch SSF, the fermentation broth of alkali-PAA pulp still kept about 50% of initial cellulase activity. However, only 21% of initial cellulase activity was kept in the fermentation broth of DAPB. The xylose syrup obtained in SSF of alkali-PAA pulp could be well converted to 2,3-butanediol by Klebsiella pneumoniae CGMCC 1.9131.

Topics: Alkalies; Biotechnology; Butylene Glycols; Cellobiose; Cellulase; Cellulose; Culture Media; Ethanol; Fermentation; Glucose; Hydrolysis; Peracetic Acid; Saccharum; Xylose

The bioconversion of cellulose and hemicellulose substrates to 2,3-butanediol by a sequential coculture approach was investigated with the cellulolytic fungus Trichoderma harzianum E58 and the fermentative bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae. Vogel medium optimal for the production of the cellulolytic and xylanolytic enzymes of the fungus was found to be inhibitory to butanediol fermentation. This inhibition appeared to be due to a synergistic effect of various ingredients, particularly the salts, present in the fungal medium. The removal or replacement of such ingredients from Vogel medium led to the relief of fermentation inhibition, but the treatments also resulted in a significant decrease in fungal enzyme production. Resting cells of K. pneumoniae could be used for butanediol production in the fungal medium, indicating that the inhibitory effect on solvent production under such conditions was due to the indirect result of growth inhibition of the bacterial cells. The resting-cell approach could be combined with a fed-batch system for the direct conversion of 8 to 10% (wt/vol) of Solka-Floc or aspenwood xylan to butanediol at over 30% of the theoretical conversion efficiencies.

Topics: Butylene Glycols; Cellulase; Cellulose; Glycoside Hydrolases; Kinetics; Klebsiella pneumoniae; Mitosporic Fungi; Polysaccharides; Trichoderma; Xylan Endo-1,3-beta-Xylosidase