Increasing the metabolic capacity of Escherichia coli for hydrogen production through heterologous expression of the Ralstonia eutropha SH operon

Biotechnology for Biofuels

Dipankar Ghosh¹  Ariane Bisaillon¹  Patrick C Hallenbeck¹ 

[1] Département de Microbiologie et Immunologie, Université de Montréal, CP 6128 Succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7

关键词: Hydrogen production from NADH;    Heterologous expression;    Metabolic engineering;    Biohydrogen;   

Others  :  797932
DOI  :  10.1186/1754-6834-6-122

 received in 2013-04-09, accepted in 2013-08-21,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Fermentative hydrogen production is an attractive means for the sustainable production of this future energy carrier but is hampered by low yields. One possible solution is to create, using metabolic engineering, strains which can bypass the normal metabolic limits to substrate conversion to hydrogen. Escherichia coli can degrade a variety of sugars to hydrogen but can only convert electrons available at the pyruvate node to hydrogen, and is unable to use the electrons available in NADH generated during glycolysis.

Results

Here, the heterologous expression of the soluble [NiFe] hydrogenase from Ralstonia eutropha H16 (the SH hydrogenase) was used to demonstrate the introduction of a pathway capable of deriving substantial hydrogen from the NADH generated by fermentation. Successful expression was demonstrated by in vitro assay of enzyme activity. Moreover, expression of SH restored anaerobic growth on glucose to adhE strains, normally blocked for growth due to the inability to re-oxidize NADH. Measurement of in vivo hydrogen production showed that several metabolically engineered strains were capable of using the SH hydrogenase to derive 2 mol H₂ per mol of glucose consumed, close to the theoretical maximum.

Conclusion

Previous introduction of heterologous [NiFe] hydrogenase in E. coli led to NAD(P)H dependent activity, but hydrogen production levels were very low. Here we have shown for the first time substantial in vivo hydrogen production by a heterologously expressed [NiFe] hydrogenase, the soluble NAD-dependent H₂ase of R. eutropha (SH hydrogenase). This hydrogenase was able to couple metabolically generated NADH to hydrogen production, thus rescuing an alcohol dehydrogenase (adhE) mutant. This enlarges the range of metabolism available for hydrogen production, thus potentially opening the door to the creation of greatly improved hydrogen production. Strategies for further increasing yields should revolve around making additional NADH available.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Ghosh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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