第94回日本細菌学会総会

講演情報

若手研究者支援シンポジウム

[YRS5] 産業化を組み込む細菌学の生存戦略

2021年3月25日(木) 09:15 〜 11:45 チャンネル2

コンビーナー:島本 整(広島大学),二川 浩樹(広島大学)

共催:広島大学 日本食・発酵食品の革新的研究開発拠点

[YRS5-5] バイオエコノミーの実現を目指したグリーンバイオプロセスの開発

○乾 将行1,2,3 (1RITE,2奈良先端大・バイオ,3グリーンケミカルズ㈱)

Recently the concept of “Bioeconomy” has emerged, which maintains economic development while solving global environmental problems by using biotechnology and renewable resources. RITE has developed an efficient biomass utilization technology based on an inherent feature of the gram-positive bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum, namely, it retains major metabolic pathways active while its growth is arrested. “RITE Bioprocess”, the growth-arrested bioprocess we developed, proceeds without microbial cell growth, achieving higher efficiency and productivity compared to conventional fermentative processes, in which formation of products and biomass inevitably occurs in parallel. Metabolic engineering enabled our microbial catalyst to utilize C6 & C5 sugars simultaneously, and, moreover, we found that C. glutamicum is highly tolerant to fermentation inhibitors included in cellulosic hydrolysates such as furans, demonstrating that “RITE Bioprocess” is compatible with cellulosic non-food biomass. Using the technology, we have succeeded in producing ethanol, lactic acids, and various amino acids with remarkably high yields, and gained global recognition for our achievement. We are currently applying the technology to microbial production of biofuels and aromatic green chemicals.