Abstract
Microbial utilization of renewable one-carbon compounds, such as methane, methanol, formic acid, and CO2, has emerged as a potential approach to increase the range of carbon sources for bioproduction and address climate change issues. Here, we modify the natural serine cycle present in methylotrophs and build an adapted pathway for Escherichia coli, which allows microorganism to condense methanol (or formate) together with bicarbonate to produce various products. We introduce the modified cycle into E. coli and demonstrate its capability for one-carbon assimilation through growth complementation and isotope labeling experiments. We also demonstrate conversion of methanol to ethanol by utilizing the modified serine cycle in an engineered E. coli strain, achieving a reaction yet to be accomplished by a one-pot chemical process. This work provides a platform to utilize various renewable one-carbon compounds as carbon sources for biosynthesis through a modified serine cycle in E. coli.
Highlights
IntroductionWe modify the natural serine cycle present in methylotrophs and build an adapted pathway for Escherichia coli, which allows microorganism to condense methanol (or formate) together with bicarbonate to produce various products
Microbial utilization of renewable one-carbon compounds, such as methane, methanol, formic acid, and CO2, has emerged as a potential approach to increase the range of carbon sources for bioproduction and address climate change issues
One glycine is first cleaved by the glycine-cleavage (Gcv) complex to generate a C1-carbon unit carried as 5,10-methylene-H4F, which is added to another glycine to produce one serine by GlyA(E.c)
Summary
We modify the natural serine cycle present in methylotrophs and build an adapted pathway for Escherichia coli, which allows microorganism to condense methanol (or formate) together with bicarbonate to produce various products. The engineered strains are able to co-assimilate formate (or methanol) together with a pyruvate source, such as xylose, to improve the production of acetyl-CoA derived C2 compounds. The modified serine cycle, in principle, can support E. coli to grow on formate (or methanol) alone, but requires further adaptation. This platform allows E. coli to co-utilize multiple C1 compounds with xylose (or glucose) for bioproduction, and eventually using reduced C1 compounds only
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