Development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity

Fossil fuels are the primary feedstock for chemical and fuel production, yet they are unsustainable and have a deleterious impact on the environment. Ethylene is a small hydrocarbon gas. Its annual worldwide production currently exceeds 150 million tonnes, surpassing any other organic compound. Ethy...

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Main Author: Van Hagen, Alexander Marcus William
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60686/
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author Van Hagen, Alexander Marcus William
author_facet Van Hagen, Alexander Marcus William
author_sort Van Hagen, Alexander Marcus William
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Fossil fuels are the primary feedstock for chemical and fuel production, yet they are unsustainable and have a deleterious impact on the environment. Ethylene is a small hydrocarbon gas. Its annual worldwide production currently exceeds 150 million tonnes, surpassing any other organic compound. Ethylene is currently produced from steam cracking of ethane, which produces vast quantities of CO2, contributing to global warming. Ethylene is the monomer for the most common plastic, polyethylene, and annual global production is approximately 80 million tons. Therefore, unlocking a sustainable or carbon neutral alternative to ethylene production is imperative. Ethylene has been produced in a wide variety of different microorganisms utilising the ethylene forming enzyme (EFE) from P. syringae pv phaseolicola. However, despite recent advances, substantial developments still need to be made to fully realise the potential of biological ethylene production in a self-sustaining chassis. Substantial improvements in ethylene production will need to address key bottlenecks such as enzyme solubility and biochemical precursor availability. We utilised a combination of systems biology, growth coupled competitive fermentation, mutagenesis and directed evolution to generate two strains with enhanced ethylene productivity. Both U2-25 and U3-26, had significant improvements in specific ethylene production. Omics investigations highlighted genomic mutations impacting glycolysis and the TCA cycle which may have been responsible for this improvement. However, further work is required to definitively conclude the role of these genomic alterations in regard to increased ethylene production.
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spelling nottingham-606862025-02-28T14:55:46Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60686/ Development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity Van Hagen, Alexander Marcus William Fossil fuels are the primary feedstock for chemical and fuel production, yet they are unsustainable and have a deleterious impact on the environment. Ethylene is a small hydrocarbon gas. Its annual worldwide production currently exceeds 150 million tonnes, surpassing any other organic compound. Ethylene is currently produced from steam cracking of ethane, which produces vast quantities of CO2, contributing to global warming. Ethylene is the monomer for the most common plastic, polyethylene, and annual global production is approximately 80 million tons. Therefore, unlocking a sustainable or carbon neutral alternative to ethylene production is imperative. Ethylene has been produced in a wide variety of different microorganisms utilising the ethylene forming enzyme (EFE) from P. syringae pv phaseolicola. However, despite recent advances, substantial developments still need to be made to fully realise the potential of biological ethylene production in a self-sustaining chassis. Substantial improvements in ethylene production will need to address key bottlenecks such as enzyme solubility and biochemical precursor availability. We utilised a combination of systems biology, growth coupled competitive fermentation, mutagenesis and directed evolution to generate two strains with enhanced ethylene productivity. Both U2-25 and U3-26, had significant improvements in specific ethylene production. Omics investigations highlighted genomic mutations impacting glycolysis and the TCA cycle which may have been responsible for this improvement. However, further work is required to definitively conclude the role of these genomic alterations in regard to increased ethylene production. 2020-07-24 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60686/1/AMWVANHAGEN%20PGR%20UPLOAD.pdf Van Hagen, Alexander Marcus William (2020) Development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. Ethylene; Biological ethylene production; Enhanced ethylene productivity
spellingShingle Ethylene; Biological ethylene production; Enhanced ethylene productivity
Van Hagen, Alexander Marcus William
Development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity
title Development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity
title_full Development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity
title_fullStr Development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity
title_full_unstemmed Development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity
title_short Development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity
title_sort development of an enhanced enzyme engineering framework towards improved ethylene productivity
topic Ethylene; Biological ethylene production; Enhanced ethylene productivity
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/60686/