Agrima Bhatt, Rajasthan University
“The best way to predict future is to create it.” – Buckminster Fuller.
This saying holds power in 2021 as the society along with researchers and scientists all around various nations pave the way to build towards a green sustainable future with zero waste. From Rio Summit 2012, till now, scientists continue to face this challenge of increasing economic opportunities for all and addressing global environmental concerns, which if left vacant, could prove to be fatal in the near future.
With increasing biotechnological advancements and rapid revolutions with every decade or so, methanol – the simplest saturated unitary alcohol, has gained popularity in science to replace sugars and agricultural products to participate in the biomanufacturing process.
Replacement of Sugar
Sugar is one of the most in-demand ingredients in the food industry. With the increasing intake of sugar in foods, sugar consumption is blamed for causing diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease at an epidemic level in society. Its cultivation and processing are especially degrading for the flora and fauna, habitat loss for the native species, agrochemical usage, improper discharge, and toxic waste accumulation as by-products through effluents. It’s primarily responsible for causing degradation to wildlife, soil, air, and water where sugar is produced and downstream ecosystems.
Thus, the search begins for a healthier alternative to a sweetener. Biotech companies have made immense leaps in developing natural-based sweetener products but what it lacks in development is the texture and property of sugar to caramelize along with an expensive approach for the consumers to buy.
Methanol – the alternative
Methanol, the most basic saturated unitary alcohol, is made from a variety of carbon-containing feedstocks, including syngas, natural gas, carbon dioxide, coals, and biomass. Furthermore, methanol is a type of highly reduced carbon source, with a degree of reduction per carbon that is 50% greater than that of glucose. Methanol as a substrate has theoretically proven to have an enhanced conversion yield of different products like chemicals, amino acids when compared to sugar as the substrate.
Researchers are looking into advanced genetic tools of engineering synthetic methylotrophs by transferring the methanol utilization pathway i.e; RuMP cycle into non-methylotrophic microorganisms. Various efforts have been made to genetically engineer platform microorganisms for methanol bioconversion, however, limiting factors such as the substrate uptake and cell growth rates on methanol remains unsatisfactory.
Experimentation and Result
To investigate the metabolic controls that enhance methanol-dependent growth, transcriptome profiling of the ancestral methanol-dependent Corynebacterium glutamicum strain MX-10 and developed mutant MX-11 was performed. It was identified that the differentially expressed genes participating in glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), amino acid biosynthesis, respiratory chain, etc., in the evolved mutant MX-11 were responsible for the improved methylotrophy.
Based on the transcriptome analysis, factors like the effects of nitrate reduction, amino acid supplementation, and an SBPase variation for Ru5P production on methanol-dependent growth were investigated by the researchers. It was concluded that NADH balancing, biosynthesis of numerous limiting amino acids, and Ru5P regeneration were responsible for the increasing methanol metabolism by Corynebacterium glutamicum.
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Reference:
- Liwen Fan, Yu Wang, Jin Qian, et al.; Transcriptome analysis reveals the roles of nitrogen metabolism and sedoheptulose bisphosphatase pathway in methanol‐dependent growth of Corynebacterium glutamicum; Microbial biotechnology; June, 2021; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.13863.
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