image: Methanol is a green and renewable feedstock, which can be produced either from coal and natural gas, or directly from CO2 by hydrogenation. High-efficient methanol bioconversion to platform chemical 3-hydroxypropionate (3-HP) without depending on the arable land is attractive. Metabolic engineering of Ogataea polymorpha by optimizing the expression of malonyl-CoA reductase and enhancing the supply of precursor malonyl-CoA and cofactor NADPH enables 7.1 g/L 3-HP synthesis from methanol as sole carbon source. view more
Credit: Chinese Journal of Catalysis
3-Hydroxypropionate (3-HP) is one of the top value-added chemicals from biomass recognized by the US Department of Energy, which can be used for synthesis of various specialty chemicals including acrylic acid, acrylamide, 1,3-propanediol. Though 3-HP production has been significantly improved from biomass derived sugars in engineered microbes, the rapid growing demand requires to seek alternative feedstock without depending on the arable land.
One carbon (C1) sources, including CO2, CO, methane and methanol, are considered as abundant feedstocks, especially methanol is considered as an ideal feedstock in biorefinery, due to the fast liquid-to-liquid mass transfer. Furthermore, methanol can be massively produced from CO2 by the ‘liquid sunshine’ technology, which should be helpful to realize carbon neutrality by linking CO2 capture and solar energy storage.
Methylotrophs yeast Ogataea polymorpha can utilize methanol as sole carbon and energy source. O. polymorpha has strong tolerance toward harsh conditions like high temperature, osmotic stress and acidic pH, suggesting its outstanding industrial application potential. Genetic manipulation toolbox including CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing system has been well established, which greatly facilitates the metabolic engineering of O. polymorpha for microbial cell factory construction.
Recently, a research team led by Prof. Yongjin J. Zhou from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences reported the bioconversion of methanol to 3-HP by engineering O. polymorpha. To enable O. polymorpha to synthesize 3-HP, fused version of malonyl-CoA reductase gene was integrated into genome for higher enzymatic activity. In addition, to debottleneck 3-HP biosynthesis from methanol, systematic engineering of central metabolism for enhancing the supply of the precursor acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA, as well as the cofactor NADPH was carried out. Finally, the engineered strain produced 7.1 g/L 3-HP from methanol with a yield of 0.14 g/g, which was higher than ever reported from C1 sources. The result demonstrated the potential of O. polymorpha as a methanol cell factory for chemical production. It can be anticipated that combining methanol production by “liquid sunshine” technology and methanol bioconversion will enable the synthesis of value-added chemicals from CO2. The results were published in Chinese Journal of Catalysis (https://doi.org/10.1016/S1872-2067(22)64195-0).
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About the Journal
Chinese Journal of Catalysis is co-sponsored by Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Chemical Society, and it is currently published by Elsevier group. This monthly journal publishes in English timely contributions of original and rigorously reviewed manuscripts covering all areas of catalysis. The journal publishes Reviews, Accounts, Communications, Articles, Highlights, Perspectives, and Viewpoints of highly scientific values that help understanding and defining of new concepts in both fundamental issues and practical applications of catalysis. Chinese Journal of Catalysis ranks among the top two journals in Applied Chemistry with a current SCI impact factor of 12.92. The Editors-in-Chief are Profs. Can Li and Tao Zhang.
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