Engineering of a Xylose Metabolic Pathway in Rhodococcus Strains
ABSTRACTThe two metabolically versatile actinobacteriaRhodococcus opacusPD630 andR. jostiiRHA1 can efficiently convert diverse organic substrates into neutral lipids mainly consisting of triacylglycerol (TAG), the precursor of energy-rich hydrocarbon. Neither, however, is able to utilize xylose, the important component present in lignocellulosic biomass, as the carbon source for growth and lipid accumulation. In order to broaden their substrate utilization range, the metabolic pathway ofd-xylose utilization was introduced into these two strains. This was accomplished by heterogenous expression of two well-selected genes,xylA, encoding xylose isomerase, andxylB, encoding xylulokinase fromStreptomyces lividansTK23, under the control of thetacpromoter with anEscherichia coli-Rhodococcusshuttle vector. The recombinantR. jostiiRHA1 bearingxylAcould grow on xylose as the sole carbon source, and additional expression ofxylBfurther improved the biomass yield. The recombinant could consume both glucose and xylose in the sugar mixture, although xylose metabolism was still affected by the presence of glucose. The xylose metabolic pathway was also introduced into the high-lipid-producing strainR. opacusPD630 by expression ofxylAandxylB. Under nitrogen-limited conditions, the fatty acid composition was determined, and lipid produced from xylose by recombinants ofR. jostiiRHA1 andR. opacusPD630 carryingxylAandxylBrepresented up to 52.5% and 68.3% of the cell dry weight (CDW), respectively. This work demonstrates that it is feasible to produce lipid from the sugars, including xylose, derived from renewable feedstock by genetic modification of rhodococcus strains.