P27: Increased production of chondroitin-like capsular polysaccharide from E.coli K4 and development of fermentation and purification strategies

A growing world market of billion dollars per year regards molecules such as hyaluronic acid, heparin, and chondroitin sulphate (CS), that are among the top ranked products in industrial biotechnology for biomedical applications. Chondroitin sulfate is currently used as nutraceutical for the treatment of osteoarthritis, and several new therapeutic applications are under evaluation. In this respect the bacterium E.coli K4 is a potential natural source of CS precursor since it produces a capsule whose structure resembles that of CS.  E.coli K4 was therefore used by our group as host for the development of an engineered strain with a higher production of capsular polysaccharide. The engineering targets regarded the capsular polysaccharide biosynthetic pathways and a positive regulator of their expression.The potential of all strains was analysed in shake flasks, and in fermenter experiments. Reproducible fermentation and purification processes were developed up to the pre-pilot scale.