Construction of polyhydroxybutyrate pathway in Klebsiella pneumoniae

Abstract:

Production of 1,3-propanediol, a byproduct of biodiesel production, is important to increase the economic benefit of biodiesel industry. Accumulation of 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde is one of the key problems in the 1,3-propanediol fermentation process, leading to the cell death and the fermentation abnormal ceasing. Different from the traditional way of reducing the accumulation of the 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde, we introduced the polyhydroxybutyrate pathway into the Klebsiella pneumoniae for the first time to enhance the tolerance of K. pneumoniae to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde, at the same time, to improve the 1,3-propanediol production. Plasmid pDK containing phbC, phbA, phbB gene was constructed and transformed into K. pneumoniae successfully. PHB was detected in the engineered K. pneumoniae after IPTG induction and its content was enhanced with the IPTG concentration increasing. The optimized IPTG concentration was 0.5 mmol/L. The constructed K. pneumoniae could produce 1,3-propanediol normally, at the same time accumulate polyhydroxybutyrate. With the constructed strain, the fermentation proceeds normally; 1,3-propanediol concentration and yield reached 31.3 g/L and 43.9% at 72 h. Our work is helpful for the deep understanding of 1,3-propanediol metabolic mechanism of Klebsiella pneumoniae, and also provides a new way for strain optimization of Klebsiella pneumoniae.