Synthetic engineering of Corynebacterium crenatum to selectively produce acetoin or 2,3-butanediol by one step bioconversion method

BACKGROUND: Acetoin (AC) and 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BD) as highly promising bio-based platform chemicals have received more attentions due to their wide range of applications. However, the non-efficient substrate conversion and mutually transition between AC and 2,3-BD in their natural producing strains not only led to a low selectivity but also increase the difficulty of downstream purification. Therefore, synthetic engineering of more suitable strains should be a reliable strategy to selectively produce AC and 2,3-BD, respectively. RESULTS: In this study, the respective AC (alsS and alsD) and 2,3-BD biosynthesis pathway genes (alsS, alsD, and bdhA) derived from Bacillus subtilis 168 were successfully expressed in non-natural AC and 2,3-BD producing Corynebacterium crenatum, and generated recombinant strains, C. crenatum SD and C. crenatum SDA, were proved to produce 9.86 g L(−1) of AC and 17.08 g L(−1) of 2,3-BD, respectively. To further increase AC and 2,3-BD selectivity, the AC reducing gene (butA) and lactic acid dehydrogenase gene (ldh) in C. crenatum were then deleted. Finally, C. crenatumΔbutAΔldh SD produced 76.93 g L(−1) AC in one-step biocatalysis with the yield of 0.67 mol mol(−1). Meanwhile, after eliminating the lactic acid production and enhancing 2,3-butanediol dehydrogenase activity, C. crenatumΔldh SDA synthesized 88.83 g L(−1) of 2,3-BD with the yield of 0.80 mol mol(−1). CONCLUSIONS: The synthetically engineered C. crenatumΔbutAΔldh SD and C. crenatumΔldh SDA in this study were proved as an efficient microbial cell factory for selective AC and 2,3-BD production. Based on the insights from this study, further synthetic engineering of C. crenatum for AC and 2,3-BD production is suggested. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12934-019-1183-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.