TY  - JOUR
U1  - Zeitschriftenartikel, wissenschaftlich - begutachtet (reviewed)
A1  - Vortmann, Marina
A1  - Stumpf, Anna K.
A1  - Sgobba, Elvira
A1  - Dirks-Hofmeister, Mareike E.
A1  - Krehenbrink, Martin
A1  - Wendisch, Volker F.
A1  - Philipp, Bodo
A1  - Moerschbacher, Bruno M.
T1  - A bottom-up approach towards a bacterial consortium for the biotechnological conversion of chitin to l-lysine
JF  - Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
N2  - Chitin is an abundant waste product from shrimp and mushroom industries and as such, an appropriate secondary feedstock for biotechnological processes. However, chitin is a crystalline substrate embedded in complex biological matrices, and, therefore, difficult to utilize, requiring an equally complex chitinolytic machinery. Following a bottom-up approach, we here describe the step-wise development of a mutualistic, non-competitive consortium in which a lysine-auxotrophic Escherichia coli substrate converter cleaves the chitin monomer N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) into glucosamine (GlcN) and acetate, but uses only acetate while leaving GlcN for growth of the lysine-secreting Corynebacterium glutamicum producer strain. We first engineered the substrate converter strain for growth on acetate but not GlcN, and the producer strain for growth on GlcN but not acetate. Growth of the two strains in co-culture in the presence of a mixture of GlcN and acetate was stabilized through lysine cross-feeding. Addition of recombinant chitinase to cleave chitin into GlcNAc2, chitin deacetylase to convert GlcNAc2 into GlcN2 and acetate, and glucosaminidase to cleave GlcN2 into GlcN supported growth of the two strains in co-culture in the presence of colloidal chitin as sole carbon source. Substrate converter strains secreting a chitinase or a β-1,4-glucosaminidase degraded chitin to GlcNAc2 or GlcN2 to GlcN, respectively, but required glucose for growth. In contrast, by cleaving GlcNAc into GlcN and acetate, a chitin deacetylase-expressing substrate converter enabled growth of the producer strain in co-culture with GlcNAc as sole carbon source, providing proof-of-principle for a fully integrated co-culture for the biotechnological utilization of chitin.
KW  - Microbial consortia
KW  - Chitin
KW  - N-acetylglucosamine
KW  - Escherichia coli
KW  - Corynebacterium glutamicum
KW  - Cross-feeding
Y1  - 2021
UN  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:959-opus-39664
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-021-11112-5
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-021-11112-5
VL  - 105
IS  - 4
SP  - 1547
EP  - 1561
ER  -