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Stress-tolerant non-conventional microbes enable next-generation chemical biosynthesis

Nature Chemical Biology volume 16, pages 113–121 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Microbial chemical production is a rapidly growing industry, with much of the growth fueled by advances in synthetic biology. New approaches have enabled rapid strain engineering for the production of various compounds; however, translation to industry is often problematic because native phenotypes of model hosts prevent the design of new low-cost bioprocesses. Here, we argue for a new approach that leverages the native stress-tolerant phenotypes of non-conventional microbes that directly address design challenges from the outset. Growth at high temperature, high salt and solvent concentrations, and low pH can enable cost savings by reducing the energy required for product separation, bioreactor cooling, and maintaining sterile conditions. These phenotypes have the added benefit of allowing for the use of low-cost sugar and water resources. Non-conventional hosts are needed because these phenotypes are polygenic and thus far have proven difficult to recapitulate in the common hosts Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

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Fig. 1: Membrane chemistries of stress-tolerant microbes.
Fig. 2: Metabolism and transport of the osmolyte ectoine.
Fig. 3: High solvent tolerance in Pseudomonas putida through effective efflux pumping.
Fig. 4: Progress of synthetic biology tool development.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Genomic Science Program under Award Number DE-SC0019093, Air Force Office of Scientific Research award FA9550-17-1-0270, Army Research Office MURI award W911NF1410263, and National Science Foundation award NSF-CBET 1706545 for funding.

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  1. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA

    Sarah Thorwall, Cory Schwartz & Ian Wheeldon

  2. Department of Bioengineering, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA

    Justin W. Chartron

  3. Center for Industrial Biotechnology, Bourns College of Engineering, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA

    Ian Wheeldon

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Thorwall, S., Schwartz, C., Chartron, J.W. et al. Stress-tolerant non-conventional microbes enable next-generation chemical biosynthesis. Nat Chem Biol 16, 113–121 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-019-0452-x

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