Abstract
The productivity of industrial fermentation processes is essentially
limited by the biomass-specific substrate consumption rate (q(S)) of the
applied microbial production system. Since q(S) depends on the growth
rate (mu), we highlight the potential of the fastest-growing
nonpathogenic bacterium, Vibrio natriegens, as a novel candidate for
future biotechnological processes. V. natriegens grows rapidly in BHIN
complex medium with a mu of up to 4.43 h(-1) (doubling time of 9.4 min)
as well as in minimal medium supplemented with various industrially
relevant substrates. Bioreactor cultivations in minimal medium with
glucose showed that V. natriegens possesses an exceptionally high q(S)
under aerobic (3.90 +/- 0.08 g g(-1) h(-1)) and anaerobic (7.81 +/- 0.71
g g(-1) h(-1)) conditions. Fermentations with resting cells of
genetically engineered V. natriegens under anaerobic conditions yielded
an overall volumetric productivity of 0.56 +/- 0.10 g alanine liter(-1)
min(-1) (i.e., 34 g liter(-1) h(-1)). These inherent properties render
V. natriegens a promising new microbial platform for future industrial
fermentation processes operating with high productivity.
IMPORTANCE Low conversion rates are one major challenge to realizing
microbial fermentation processes for the production of commodities
operating competitively with existing petrochemical approaches. For this
reason, we screened for a novel platform organism possessing
characteristics superior to those of traditionally employed microbial
systems. We identified the fast-growing V. natriegens, which exhibits a
versatile metabolism and shows striking growth and conversion rates, as
a solid candidate to reach outstanding productivities. Due to these
inherent characteristics, V. natriegens can speed up common laboratory
routines, is suitable for already existing production procedures, and
forms an excellent foundation for engineering nextgeneration
bioprocesses.
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