Process Biochemistry, Vol.77, 23-30, 2019
Enhanced synthesis of medium-chain-length poly(3-hydroxyalkanoates) by inactivating the tricarboxylate transport system of Pseudomonas putida KT2440 and process development using waste vegetable oil
The use of waste materials as feedstock for biosynthesis of valuable compounds has been an intensive area of research aiming at diminishing the consumption of non-renewable materials. In this study, P. putida KT2440 was employed as a cell factory for the bioconversion of waste vegetable oil into medium-chain-length Polyhydroxyalkanoates. In the presence of the waste oil this environmental strain is capable of secreting enzymes with lipase activities that enhance the bioavailability of this hydrophobic carbon substrate. It was also found that the oxygen transfer coefficient is directly correlated with high PHA levels in KT2440 cells when metabolizing the waste frying oil. By knocking out the tctA gene, encoding for an enzyme of the tripartite carboxylate transport system, an enhanced intracellular level of me-PHA was found in the engineered strain when grown on fatty acids. Batch bioreactors showed that the KT2440 strain produced 1.01 (g.L-1) of PHA whereas the engineered Delta tctA P. putida strain synthesized L91 (g.L-1) after 72 h cultivation on 20 (g.L-1) of waste oil, resulting in a nearly 2-fold increment in the PHA volumetric productivity. Taken together, this work contributes to accelerate the pace of development for efficient bioconversion of waste vegetable oils into sustainable biopolymers.
Keywords:Waste vegetable oil;Polyhydroxyalkanoates;Tricarboxylate acid transporter;Pseudomonas putida;Lipase