Efficient production of (2R, 3R)-butanediol from xylose by an engineered Serratia marcescens

Abstract

(2R,3R)-BDO is an important bio-based four-carbon platform compound and widely used in chemical, food, pharmaceutical, fuel and aerospace fields. Serratia marcescens has been shown to be an effective strain for producing BDO. However, there have been few reports on the metabolic engineering of this strain to efficiently produce (2R,3R)-BDO using xylose. In this study, the endogenous strong promoter was screened and modified, and combined with the screened RBS. (2R,3R)-BDO was successfully produced by combining the selected promoters and RBS with the overexpressed key enzymes (ALS, ALSD, BDH, GLF) of (2R,3R)-BDO production. The optimum fermentation temperature and pH were 37 ℃ and 6.0, respectively, and the optimized yield reached 6.0 g/L. After batch fermentation, the (2R,3R)-BDO yield reached 36.6 g/L. This provided a good idea for efficient production of (2R,3R)-BDO from xylose.