Growth of engineered Pseudomonas putida on glucose, xylose and arabinose

In Germany, researchers from Ulm University engineered Pseudomonas putida KT2440 as microbial biocatalyst for the utilization of xylose and arabinose in addition to glucose as sole carbon sources. What they found was surprising in that both recombinant strains were able to grow on xylose as well as arabinose with high cell densities and growth rates comparable to glucose.

The D‐xylose metabolizing strain P. putida KT2440_xylAB and L‐arabinose metabolizing strain P. putida KT2440_araBAD were constructed by introducing respective operons from Escherichia coli.

The growth characteristics on various mixtures of glucose, xylose and arabinose were also investigated, which demonstrated the efficient co‐utilization of hexose and pentose sugars.

Finally, the possibility of using lignocellulose hydrolysate as substrate for the two recombinant strains was verified. The recombinant P. putida KT2440 strains presented as flexible microbial biocatalysts to convert lignocellulosic sugars will undoubtedly contribute to the economic feasibility of the production of valuable compounds derived from renewable feedstock.