Evaluation of Newly Isolated Klebsiella pneumoniae Strains for the Co-Production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid and 1,3-propanediol from Glycerol

Abstract

Co-production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) and 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) was suggested as an innovativestrategy to overcome several limitations occurring in the single production of 3-HP from glycerol. In this study, twonew isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae, which produce less lipopolysaccharide (LPS) thus considered less pathogenicthan K. pneumoniae DSM 2026, were compared and evaluated for their potential for the co-production of 3-HP and 1,3-PDO. The newly isolated strains showed significantly faster sedimentation rate than DSM, which should be beneficial for downstream processing. Analysis of genome sequences of the isolates confirmed the presence of all genes necessary for glycerol assimilation, 1,3-PDO production and biosynthesis of coenzyme B12. Co-production yield was highest under anaerobic condition while cell growth was highest under aerobic condition. Both strains showed similarly good performance for the co-production although J2B gave the slightly higher co-production yield of 0.80 mol/mol than GSC021 (0.75 mol/mol). The evaluation of the newly developed strains presented here should be useful in designing similar evaluation experiments for other microorganisms.