Engineered E. coli W enables efficient 2,3-butanediol production from glucose and sugar beet molasses using defined minimal medium as economic basis

Abstract

Efficient microbial production of chemicals is often hindered by the cytotoxicity of the products or by the pathogenicity of the host strains. Hence 2,3-butanediol, an important drop-in chemical, is an interesting alternative target molecule for microbial synthesis since it is non-cytotoxic. Metabolic engineering of non-pathogenic and industrially relevant microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli, have already yielded in promising 2,3-butanediol titers showing the potential of microbial synthesis of 2,3-butanediol. However, current microbial 2,3-butanediol production processes often rely on yeast extract as expensive additive, rendering these processes infeasible for industrial production.