Institut für Systembiotechnologie

From renewable resources to sustainable plastics

Tailored cell factories for the fermentative production of bio-based polymer building blocks

The development of bio-based polymers is one of the most important topics towards a sustainable bio economy to replace classical petrochemical plastics based on limited fossil resources. Against this background, the project aims to produce new monomers on a biological basis, covering the entire value chain from renewable resources to plastics. The focus of our work is the metabolic engineering of the soil bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum for the efficient synthesis of the functional monomers glutarate and aminovalerate via the lysine biosynthetic pathway and the development of fermentation processes for their production. The two substances are key building blocks for innovative bioplastics.

Publications

Rohles C*, Pauli S*, Giesselmann G, Kohlstedt M, Becker J, Wittmann C (2022) Systems metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum eliminates all by-products for selective and high-yield production of the platform chemical 5-aminovalerate. Met. Eng. 73.168-181. Link. * both authors contributed equally

Rohles, CM, Gläser, L, Kohlstedt, M, Gießelmann, G, Pearson, S, del Campo, A, Becker, J, Wittmann, C (2018) Bio-based route to the carbon-5 chemical glutaric acid and to bionylon-6,5 using metabolically engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum. Green Chem. 20:4662-4674. Link.

Rohles C, Gießelmann G, Kohlstedt M, Wittmann C, Becker J (2016) Systems metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the production of the carbon-5 platform chemicals 5-aminovalerate and glutarate. Microb. Cell Fact. 15:154. Link.

Coordinator

Christoph Wittmann