Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | eveloping glucose and xylose co-utilizing Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 strains and understanding resource allocation to improve biofuel yield. |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Piyush Behari Lal, Kasturba Medical College- Manipal Academy Of Higher Education, Karnataka |
Timeline Start Year : | 2023 |
Timeline End Year : | 2026 |
Contact info : | behari.piyush@gmail.com |
Equipments : | Centrifuge for 15/50ml adapters |
Details
Executive Summary : | This proposal is to create a robust strain of a non-model alpha-proteobacteria Zymomonas mobilis (Z. mobilis) that can co-utilize two sugars, glucose and xylose. Complete utilization of major carbohydrates present in plant hydrolysate is an important factor for the microbial production of sustainable lignocellulosic biofuel and biochemicals. Glucose and xylose are two major carbon sources that are present in agricultural waste or hydrolysate. Significant advancements have been made in engineering microbial systems for efficient conversion of resources in plant biomass into desired bioproducts. One such microorganism is the ?-proteobacterium Zymomonas mobilis. Previous studies have identified Z. mobilis as a promising candidate for microbial conversion of plant biomass into valuable products (biofuels, terpenes etc.). Z. mobilis has all traits that makes it suitable to become a platform strain for strain development for biofuel production. However, a strain of Z. mobilis has not been developed yet that can efficiently co-utilize glucose and xylose from plant hydrolysate. Several attempts have been made to equip strains with xylose utilizing genes and improve co-utilization of xylose and glucose by adaptive evolution, but those strains were not robust enough to ferment both carbon sources efficiently at industrial scale. This proposal is to create a robust strain of Zymomonas mobilis (Z. mobilis) that can co-utilize both sugars. First step in this work is to create a clean background strain with xylose utilization pathway, then this strain will be used to evolve for better xylose uptake. This strain will be then used to analyze resource allocation, which will allow us to design future experiments to improve the strain for better biofuel producing strains. |
Total Budget (INR): | 29,91,951 |
Organizations involved