High rate 2,3-butanediol production with Vibrio natriegens
Anna Maria Erian, Philipp Freitag, Martin Gibisch, Stefan Pflügl
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate if the high substrate turnover rates of Vibrio natriegens enable 2,3-butanediol production at high productivities. Introduction of a heterologous pathway led to 2,3-butanediol production at yields comparable to Escherichia coli using glucose, sucrose and sugar beet molasses. Microaerobic fed-batch cultivations maintained at 0–1% dissolved oxygen yielded a combined diol titer of 49.9 g L−1 of 2,3-butanediol and acetoin and a production rate of 3.9 g L−1 h−1. Optimization of the oxygen supply in chemostat cultivations increased the product yield to 70% of the theoretical maximum at volumetric and specific production rates of 2 g L−1 h−1 and 0.66 g g−1 h−1, respectively. In conclusion, this study could for the first time demonstrate V. natriegens as novel host for 2,3-butanediol production with high volumetric and specific productivity, underlining its potential for microbial chemical production.