A dynamic control strategy to produce riboflavin with lignocellulose hydrolysate in the thermophile Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius

The efficient utilization of both glucose and xylose, the two most abundant sugars in biomass hydrolysates, is one of the main objectives of biofermentation with lignocellulosic materials. The utilization of xylose is commonly inhibited by glucose, which is known as glucose catabolite repression (GCR). Here we report a GCR-based dynamic control (GCR-DC) strategy aiming at a better co-utilization of glucose and xylose, by decoupling the cell growth and biosynthesis of riboflavin as a product. Using the thermophilic strain Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius DSM2542 as a host, we constructed extra riboflavin biosynthetic pathways that were activated by xylose but not glucose. The engineered strains showed a two-stage fermentation process. In the first stage, glucose was preferentially used for cell growth and no production of riboflavin was observed, while in the second stage where glucose was nearly depleted, xylose was effectively utilized for riboflavin biosynthesis. Using the corn cob hydrolysate as a carbon source, the optimized riboflavin yields of strains DSM2542-DCall-MSS (full pathway dynamic control strategy) and DSM2542-DCrib (single module dynamic control strategy) were 5.26 and 2.26 folds higher than that of the control strain DSM2542 Rib-Gtg constitutively producing riboflavin, respectively. This GCR-DC strategy should also be applicable to the construction of cell factories that can efficiently use natural carbon sources with multiple sugar components for the production of high-value chemicals in future.