Efficient production of itaconic acid from brown macro-algae by engineering Vibrio sp. dhg

Abstract

이타콘산은 세제, latex, polyester 합성 등에 사용되는 고부가가치 화합물로, 2018년 기준 8480만 달러의 시장 규모를 갖는 것으로 보고되었다. 본 연구에서는 이타콘산과 같이 고부가가치를 갖는 화합물을 갈조류와 같은 저가 탄소원을 사용하여 생산 시스템을 구축한다면 더 큰 경쟁력을 갖게 될 것이라 예상하였다. 따라서 최근 해양 sludge로부터 분리 동정한 신종 균주인 Vibrio sp. dhg의 대사 경로를 개량하여 alginate로부터 이타콘산을 생산하는 생산 시스템을 구축하였다.

Itaconic acid is a high value-added compound used in detergents, latex, polyester synthesis. In this research, by engineering metabolic pathway of Vibrio sp. dhg, we built a production system that produces itaconate from alginate. In order to increase the production of itaconate and to increase pyruvate accumulation, a strain in which the fermentative pathway gene was knocked out was selected as the parental strain. After that, a promoter library was constructed to find the optimal expression level of pyc, an anaplerotic reaction. As a result of cell cultivation, it was confirmed that the production of itaconate was increased for each pyc promoter variant, and the pyc expression level could be precisely controlled.