Scientists Discover Metabolic Pathway of Bacterium that Feeds on Lignin
October 5, 2016http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/09/14/1606043113.full
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Lignin, a component of lignocellulosic biomass, is critical to biofuel production. Lignin is hard to break down, limiting the biofuel production process. However, by studying the metabolic pathway of a soil bacterium that lives off lignin, the Sandia research team, led by Seema Singh, have developed a technology to break down lignin and extract valuable platform chemicals.
The team looked to the bacterium Sphingobium, or SYK-6, commonly found in the lignin-rich waste stream from wood pulp production and only feeds on lignin. The researchers then studied how SYK-6 lives off lignin and mapped its pathway.
The next step would be to engineer a microbial chassis to harness SYK-6's metabolic pathway. The aim is to stop the pathway at the right step to extract a useful product such as platform chemicals. Another step would be to insert the genes responsible for the desired metabolic process in SYK-6 into a strong industrial host like E. coli to create a chassis for desired fuels and chemicals.
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