Re-engineering Escherichia coli for ethanol production

• DOI: 10.1007/s10529-008-9821-3
• Publication Date: 2008-09-04T10:51:56Z
• Authors: L. P. Yomano; S. W. York; S. Zhou; K. T. Shanmugam; L. O. Ingram
• Keywords: Zymomonas mobilis; Strain (injury); Metabolic Engineering

A lactate producing derivative of Escherichia coli KO11, strain SZ110, was re-engineered for ethanol production by deleting genes encoding all fermentative routes for NADH and randomly inserting a promoterless mini-Tn5 cassette (transpososome) containing the complete Zymomonas mobilis ethanol pathway (pdc, adhA, and adhB) into the chromosome. By selecting for fermentative growth in mineral salts medium containing xylose, a highly productive strain was isolated in which the ethanol cassette had been integrated behind the rrlE promoter, designated strain LY160(KO11, Deltafrd::celY(Ec) DeltaadhE DeltaldhA, DeltaackA lacA::casAB(Ko) rrlE::(pdc( Zm)-adhA(Zm)-adhB(Zm)-FRT-rrlE)pflB(+)). This strain fermented 9% (w/v) xylose to 4% (w/v) ethanol in 48 h in mineral salts medium, nearly equal to the performance of KO11 with Luria broth.