Thesis supervisor: Szabolcs Lányi
Location of studies (in Hungarian): Csíkszereda Abbreviation of location of studies: Csík
Description of the research topic:
Bio-based production of commodity chemicals such as succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) from renewable feedstocks is intensively studied. The main reason is that the biosynthesis of value-added biochemicals using microorganisms could be achieved in a sustainable manner and this approach could be an alternative to the current chemical synthesis. Many “microbial cell factories” have been designed and developed in recent years. However, during strain design different key issues must be taken into account: host organism selection, complexity of the biological systems, target compound selection, carbon sources, fermentation conditions, etc. One possible way to address this challenges is systems-based design- metabolic engineering of microorganism’s metabolism to achieve high production rates, yields and titters.
The main purpose is to investigate the production potential of Basfia succiniciproducens for succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol production from renewable resources: glucose, glycerol and xylose. To improve the succinic acid production in the host organism different pathways must to be block by knocking out key genes, reactions. On the other hand, the bio-based production of BDO has many challenges as long as is not produced naturally in any organism. Engineering a microbe for the production of a heterologous compound requires: in silico and in vivo establishment of a new heterologous biochemical pathway; construction, implementation of the new pathway into B. succiniciproducens; optimization of the production potential (elimination of competitive pathways, optimization of culture conditions).
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