Tuesday, May 3, 2011
For constructing a biomass-oriented sustainable society, it is necessary to produce chemicals and fuels from renewable resources such as biomass, industrial waste substances. At present, polymer materials are made of building block compounds usually made by chemical processes. Although various bio-material production systems have been developed using a variety of microbes, there are few reports concerning the production of aromatic building blocks using biomass. Cinnamic acid, one of aromatic compounds, is widely used as a material for organic thin film displays or as an anti-bacterial. In our study, cinnamic acid production was demonstrated using Streptomyces as a host, which are antibiotic producers having high tolerance for aromatic compounds. A gene encoding phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) from Streptomyces maritimus was introduced into Streptomyces lividans and its expression was confirmed by western blot analysis. After 4 days cultivation using glucose as a carbon source, the maximal level of cinnamic acid was confirmed in the culture supernatant. When glycerol was used as the carbon source, the maximal level of produced cinnamic acid was confirmed in the culture supernatant. In addition, using various biomass as the carbon source, cinnamic acid production was tested. Thus, we demonstrated that S. lividans has great potential to produce cinnamic acid as well as other aromatic compounds using various biomass as the carbon source.