• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.199-202
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• 2014

The bioconversion of cellulosic biomass hydrolyzates consisting mainly of glucose and xylose requires the use of engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing a heterologous xylose pathway. However, there is concern that a fungal xylose pathway consisting of NADPH-specific xylose reductase (XR) and $NAD^+$-specific xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH) may result in a cellular redox imbalance. However, the glycerol biosynthesis and glycerol degradation pathways of S. cerevisiae, termed here as the glycerol cycle, has the potential to balance the cofactor requirements for xylose metabolism, as it produces NADPH by consuming NADH at the expense of one mole of ATP. Therefore, this study tested if the glycerol cycle could improve the xylose metabolism of engineered S. cerevisiae by cofactor balancing, as predicted by an in-silico analysis using elementary flux mode (EFM). When the GPD1 gene, the first step of the glycerol cycle, was overexpressed in the XR/XDH-expressing S. cerevisiae, the glycerol production significantly increased, while the xylitol and ethanol yields became negligible. The reduced xylitol yield suggests that enough $NAD^+$ was supplied for XDH by the glycerol cycle. However, the GPD1 overexpression completely shifted the carbon flux from ethanol to glycerol. Thus, moderate expression of GPD1 may be necessary to achieve improved ethanol production through the cofactor balancing.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.27-31
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• 2000

Characteristics of ethanol production by a xylose-fermenting yeast, Pichia stipitis Y-7124, were studied. The sugar consumption rate and specific growth rate were higher in the glucose-containing medium than in the xylose-containing medium. Specific activities of xylose reductase and xylitol dehydrogenase were higher in the medium with xylose than glucose, suggesting their induction by xylose. Maximum specific growth rate and ethanol yield were achieved at 30 g xylose/L concentration without formation of by-products such as xylitol and acetic acid whereas a maximum ethanol concentration was obtained at 130 g/L xylose. Adding a respiratory inhibitor, rotenone, increased a maximum ethanol concentration by $10\%$ compared with the control experiment. In order to evaluate the pattern of ethanol inhibition on specific growth rate, a kinetic model based on Luong's equations was applied. The relationship between ethanol concentration and specific growth rate was hyperbolic for glucose and parabolic for xylose. A maximum ethanol concentration at which cells did not grow was 33.6 g/L for glucose and 44.7 g/L for xylose.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.577-586
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• 2019

The engineered Aspergillus oryzae has a high NADPH demand for xylose utilization and overproduction of target metabolites. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH, E.C. 1.1.1.49) is one of two key enzymes in the oxidative part of the pentose phosphate pathway, and is also the main enzyme involved in NADPH regeneration. The open reading frame and cDNA of the putative A. oryzae G6PDH (AoG6PDH) were obtained, followed by heterogeneous expression in Escherichia coli and purification as a his6-tagged protein. The purified protein was characterized to be in possession of G6PDH activity with a molecular mass of 118.0 kDa. The enzyme displayed maximal activity at pH 7.5 and the optimal temperature was $50^{\circ}C$. This enzyme also had a half-life of 33.3 min at $40^{\circ}C$. Kinetics assay showed that AoG6PDH was strictly dependent on $NADP^+$ ($K_m=6.3{\mu}M$, $k_{cat}=1000.0s^{-1}$, $k_{cat}/K_m=158.7s^{-1}{\cdot}{\mu}M^{-1}$) as cofactor. The $K_m$ and $k_{cat}/K_m$ values of glucose-6-phosphate were $109.7s^{-1}{\cdot}{\mu}M^{-1}$ and $9.1s^{-1}{\cdot}{\mu}M^{-1}$ respectively. Initial velocity and product inhibition analyses indicated the catalytic reaction followed a two-substrate, steady-state, ordered BiBi mechanism, where $NADP^+$ was the first substrate bound to the enzyme and NADPH was the second product released from the catalytic complex. The established kinetic model could be applied in further regulation of the pentose phosphate pathway and NADPH regeneration of A. oryzae to improve its xylose utilization and yields of valued metabolites.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.946-949
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• 2010

The effects of two different sugars (glucose and xylose) on the expression levels and patterns of the xylose reductase (xyl1), xylitol dehydrogenase (xyl2), and xylulokinase (xyl3) genes were analyzed using Pichia stipitis. A significant increase in mRNA levels of xyl1 was observed after 6 h growth in culture conditions using xylose as a sole carbon source, but expressions of the three genes were not influenced by normal culture media with glucose. In addition, expressions of xyl2 and xyl3 were not observed during the entire culture period during which xylose was added. It also was found that the expression level of xyl1 increased as a function of the xylose concentration (40, 60, and 80 g/l) used in this study, indicating that xyl1 expression sensitively responded to xylose in the culture media. Although the induced level of xyl2 increased slightly after 48 h in the xylose-supplemented culture conditions, the expression of xyl2 was not observed in the xylitol-supplemented culture conditions. Finally, considering the expression of each gene in response to glucose or xylose, the absolute expression levels of the three genes indicate that xyl1 is induced primarily by exposure to xylose.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2009

Microbial oxidoreductive systems have been widely used in asymmetric syntheses of optically active alcohols. However, when reused in multi-batch reaction, the catalytic efficiency and sustainability of non-growing cells usually decreased because of continuous consumption of required cofactors during the reaction process. A novel method for NADPH regeneration in cells was proposed by using pentose metabolism in microorganisms. Addition of D-xylose, L-arabinose, or D-ribose to the reaction significantly improved the conversion efficiency of deracemization of racemic 1-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol to (S)-isomer by Candida parapsilosis cells already used once, which afforded the product with high optical purity over 97%e.e. in high yield over 85% under an increased substrate concentration of 15 g/l. Compared with reactions without xylose, xylose added to multi-batch reactions had no influence on the activity of the enzyme catalyzing the key step in deracemization, but performed a promoting effect on the recovery of the metabolic activity of the non-growing cells with its consumption in each batch. The detection of activities of xylose reductase and xylitol dehydrogenase from cell-free extract of C. parapsilosis made xylose metabolism feasible in cells, and the depression of the pentose phosphate pathway inhibitor to this reaction further indicated that xylose facilitated the NADPH-required deracemization through the pentose phosphate pathway in C. parapsilosis. moreover, by investigating the cofactor pool, the xylose addition in reaction batches giving more NADPH, compared with those without xylose, suggested that the higher catalytic efficiency and sustainability of C. parapsilosis non-growing cells had resulted from xylose metabolism recycling NADPH for the deracemization.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.156-162
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• 2012

A mannitol dehydrogenase (StMDH) gene was cloned from Salmonella typhimurium LT2 (KCTC 2421) and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. It has a 1,467 bp open reading frame encoding 488 amino acids with deduced molecular mass of 54 kDa, which shares approximately 36% of amino acid identity with known long-chain dehydrogenase/reductatse (LDR) family enzymes. The recombinant StMDH showed the highest activity at $30^{\circ}C$, and pH 5.0 and 10.0 for D-fructose reduction and D-mannitol oxidation, respectively. On the contrary, it has no activity on glucose, galactose, xylose, and arabinose. StMDH can catalyze the oxidative/reductive reactions between D-fructose and D-mannitol only in the presence of $NAD^+$/NADH as coenzymes. These results indicate that StMDH is a typical $NAD^+$/NADH-dependent mannitol dehydrogenase (E.C. 1.1.1.67).

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2017

Lignocellulosic biomass represents a potentially large resource to supply the world's fuel and chemical feedstocks. Enzymatic bioconversion of this substrate offers a reliable strategy for accessing this material under mild reaction conditions. Owing to the complex nature of lignocellulose, many different enzymatic activities are required to function in concert to perform efficient transformation. In nature, large multienzyme complexes are known to effectively hydrolyze lignocellulose into constituent monomeric sugars. We created artificial complexes of enzymes, called rosettazymes, in order to hydrolyze glucuronoxylan, a common lignocellulose component, into its cognate sugar ${\small{D}}$-xylose and then further convert the ${\small{D}}$-xylose into ${\small{D}}$-xylonic acid, a Department of Energy top-30 platform chemical. Four different types of enzymes (endoxylanase, ${\alpha}$-glucuronidase, ${\beta}$-xylosidase, and xylose dehydrogenase) were incorporated into the artificial complexes. We demonstrated that tethering our enzymes in a complex resulted in significantly more activity (up to 71%) than the same amount of enzymes free in solution. We also determined that varying the enzyme composition affected the level of complex-related activity enhancement as well as overall yield.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.281-286
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• 2005

We created a new graphite-Cu(II) electrode and found that the electrode could catalyze FADH$_2$ oxidation and FAD reduction coupled to electricity production and consumption, respectively. In a fuel cell with graphite-Cu(II) anode and graphite-Fe(III) cathode, the electricity was produced by coupling to the spontaneous oxidation of FADH$_2$ Fumarate and xylose were not produced from the enzymatic oxidation of succinate and xylitol without FAD, respectively, but produced with FAD. The production of fumarate and xylose in the reactor with FAD electrochemically regenerated was maximally 2- 5 times higher than that in the reactor with FAD. By using this new electrode with catalytic function, a bioelectrocatalysts can be engineered; namely, oxidoreductase (e.g., lactate dehydrogenase) and FAD can function for biotransformation without an electron mediator and second oxidoreductase for cofactors recycling.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1467-1479
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• 2020

Profiling the transcriptome changes involved in xylose metabolism by the fungus Trichoderma reesei allows for the identification of potential targets for ethanol production processing. In the present study, the transcriptome of T. reesei HJ-48 grown on xylose versus glucose was analyzed using next-generation sequencing technology. During xylose fermentation, numerous genes related to central metabolic pathways, including xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH), were expressed at higher levels in T. reesei HJ-48. Notably, growth on xylose did not fully repress the genes encoding enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid and respiratory pathways. In addition, increased expression of several sugar transporters was observed during xylose fermentation. This study provides a valuable dataset for further investigation of xylose fermentation and provides a deeper insight into the various genes involved in this process.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1277-1284
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• 2018

In this study, a repeated yeast integrative plasmid (R-YIp) harboring Cre/loxP system was constructed to integrate various gene expression cassettes into the yeast chromosome. The R-YIp system contains a reusable selective marker (CgTRP1), loxP sequence, and target sequence for integration. Therefore, many gene expression cassettes can be integrated into the same position of the same yeast chromosome. In the present study, several model enzymes involving xylan/xylose metabolism were examined, including endoxylanase (XYLP), ${\beta}$-xylosidase (XYLB), xylose reductase (GRE3) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XYL2). Efficient expression of these genes was obtained using two promoters (GAL10p and ADH1p) and various plasmids (pGMF-GENE and pAMF-GENE plasmids) were constructed. The XYLP, XYLB, GRE3, and XYL2 genes were efficiently expressed under the control of the GAL10 promoter. Subsequently, R-YIps containing the GAL10p-GENE-GAL7t cassette were constructed, resulting in pRS-XylP, pRS-XylB, pRS-Gre3, and pRS-Xyl2 plasmids. These plasmids were sequentially integrated into chromosome VII of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain by repeated gene integration and selective marker rescue. These genes were integrated by the R-YIp system and were stably expressed in the yeast transformants to produce active recombinant enzymes. Therefore, we expect that the R-YIp system will be able to overcome current limitations of the host cells and allow selective marker selection for the integration of various genes into the yeast chromosome.