DEVELOPMENT OF A CYANOBACTERIAL PLATFORM FOR THE PRODUCTION OF METHYL-BRANCHED LIPIDS

MICHAEL BURKART; ARNAUD TATON; GRAMAJO HUGO; JULIA ROULET; ARABOLAZA ANA

Conferencia; Microbiology Society Annual Conference; 2018

Cyanobacteria are the only prokaryotes that perform plant-like oxygenic photosynthesis and convert sunlight-derived energy into biomass. They possess several advantages as hosts for biotechnological applications, including simple growth requirements, ease of genetic manipulation and robust high-scale production. At present, many bioindustrial processes rely on the fermentation of heterotrophic bacteria to produce various fine chemicals. Nevertheless, the economic viability of these production schemes is limited by the cost ofcarbon substrates used in the fermentation processes. Cyanobacteria, endowed with photosynthesis system to fix carbon dioxide into reduced form, are ideal biosynthetic machinery for sustainable production of various chemicals and biofuels. In this context, we aim to develop a cyanobacterial platform for the production of polyketides of industrial interest.For this purpose, and as a proof of concept, we designed and constructed recombinant cyanobacteria strains capable of producing methyl-branched chain lipids (MBL), which have interesting physicochemical properties for their application in the bio-lubricants, pharmaceuticals and/or cosmetics industries.The heterologous pathways for the biosynthesis of the PKS substrates and the final products was performed using a combinatorial modular design. After the recombinant-cyanobacteria strains were obtained, the functionality of the system was assayed by bioconversion experiments, demonstrating that the cyanobacterial strains successfully produced MBL.In summary, we have developed a cyanobacterial high-value-molecules production platform with a modular-functional design that allows a versatile, interchangeable and combinatorial construction of the desired cyanobacterial strain.