1-39: Development of a new Escherichia coli succinic acid production strain capable of efficient C5C6 fermentation

Increased demand for crude oil imports in combination with decreasing supplies and unstable trade have resulted in a global effort to generate alternative fuels and chemicals from renewable resources.  In 2004, the US Department of Energy listed succinic acid as a priority in the top twelve desired chemicals from biomass.  Full commercialization of bio-based succinic acid is critically dependent on an inexpensive and efficient production process.  Myriant Technologies, LLC has recently validated our succinic acid technology in a successful pilot campaign scaling up to 20,000 L using pure sugars.  As technology continues to drive the cost of alternative fuels and chemicals down and the availability of sugars from food sources decreases, the need for cheaper, more abundant sugars from biomass will become essential.  Here we describe a new E. coli strain, TG400, which has been evolved for efficient xylose fermentation to produce succinic acid with improved yield, titer, and productivity from hemicelluloses hydrolysates.  Genomic sequence and analysis indicates a novel point mutation which may allow for an energy-conserving xylose uptake system.