Detoxification of acidic biorefinery waste liquor for production of high value amino acid.

The current study evaluates the detoxification of acid pretreatment liquor (APL) using adsorbent (ADS 400 & ADS 800) or ion-exchange (A-27MP & A-72MP) resins and its potential for amino acid production. The APL is generated as a by-product from the pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass and is rich monomeric sugars as well as sugar degradation products (fermentation inhibitors) such as furfural and hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF). Of the four resins compared, ADS 800 removed approximately 85% and 60% of furfural and HMF, respectively. ADS 800 could be reused for up to six cycles after regeneration without losing its adsorption properties. The study was further extended by assessing the fermentability of detoxified APL for l-lysine production using wild and mutant strains of Corynebacterium glutamicum. The detoxified APL was superior to APL for l-lysine production.

Co-expression of endoglucanase and ß-glucosidase in Corynebacterium glutamicum DM1729 towards direct lysine fermentation from cellulose.

The aim of the present study is the development of a consolidated bioprocess for the production of lysine with recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum DM1729 strains expressing endoglucanase and ß-glucosidase genes. Here, the endoglucanase genes from Xanthomonas campestris XCC3521 and XCC2387 and betaglucosidase gene from Saccharophagus degradans Sde1394 were cloned in C. glutamicum DM1729 and expressed either extracellularly or on cell surface. The highest ß-glucosidase activity of 9±0.5U/OD600 of 1 and endoglucanase activity of 5.5±0.8U was obtained in C. glutamicum DM 1729 (pVWEx1-TATXCC2387) (pEKEx3-PorC-Sde1394) when cellobiose (20g/L) alone or in combination with carboxymethyl cellulose (20g/L) was used as the carbon sources respectively. The overall efforts resulted in a lysine titre of 5.9±0.5mM. The ability of the constructs to utilize carboxymethyl cellulose and cellobiose for growth and amino acid production proves the concept of utilization of C. glutamicum as a biocatalyst in the lignocellulosic biorefinery.