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An Engineered Microbial Platform for Direct Biofuel Production from Brown Macroalgae

2012; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Volume: 335; Issue: 6066 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.1214547

1095-9203

Adam J. Wargacki, Effendi Leonard, Maung Nyan Win, Drew D. Regitsky, Christine Nicole S. Santos, Peter B. Kim, Susan Cooper, Ryan Raisner, Asael Herman, Alicia B. Sivitz, Arun Lakshmanaswamy, Yuki Kashiyama, David Baker, Yasuo Yoshikuni,

Enzyme Production and Characterization

Prospecting macroalgae (seaweeds) as feedstocks for bioconversion into biofuels and commodity chemical compounds is limited primarily by the availability of tractable microorganisms that can metabolize alginate polysaccharides. Here, we present the discovery of a 36-kilo-base pair DNA fragment from Vibrio splendidus encoding enzymes for alginate transport and metabolism. The genomic integration of this ensemble, together with an engineered system for extracellular alginate depolymerization, generated a microbial platform that can simultaneously degrade, uptake, and metabolize alginate. When further engineered for ethanol synthesis, this platform enables bioethanol production directly from macroalgae via a consolidated process, achieving a titer of 4.7% volume/volume and a yield of 0.281 weight ethanol/weight dry macroalgae (equivalent to ~80% of the maximum theoretical yield from the sugar composition in macroalgae).