Patent ID: 10287611

Abstract:
This invention relates to biocatalysts for the efficient production of succinic acid and/or other products from renewable biological feedstocks. The biocatalysts have a very high efficiency for the growth-coupled production of succinic acid and/or other products from carbohydrate feed stocks as a result of both genetic manipulation and metabolic evolution. More specifically, certain biocatalysts of the present invention produce succinic acid at high titers and yields in mineral salts media during simple pH-controlled batch fermentation without the addition of any exogenous genetic material. The genetic manipulations of the present invention are concerned with energy-conserving strategies coupled with the elimination of alternative routes for NADH oxidation other than the routes for succinic acid production. The biocatalysts contain glucose-repressed gluconeogenic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (pck) derepressed by genetic modifications and a genetically-inactivated phosphotransferase system. In terms of succinic acid production efficiency, the biocatalysts of the present invention are functionally equivalent to succinate producing rumen bacteria such as Actinobacillus succinogens and Mannheimia succiniproducens, with one difference: that the biocatalysts are able to achieve this high level of succinic acid production in a minimal salt medium with carbohydrate source, as opposed to the requirement for a rich medium for succinic acid production by rumen bacteria.