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Agrobacterium tumefaciens uronate dehydrogenase (AtuUdh) belongs to the short-chain dehydrogenase superfamily, specifically those acting on the CH-OH group of donor with NAD+ or NADP+ as acceptor. It is apparently required for the production of D-glucaric acid. AtuUdh-catalyzed reaction is reversible with dual substrate-specific activity (D-galacturonic acid and D-glucuronic acid) in nature. In our study, 34 mutants were pre-screened from 155 mutants generated from AtuUdh (wild-type) and selected 10 structurally stable mutants with increased substrate selectivity. The specificity, efficiency, and selectivity of these mutants for different substrates and cofactors were predicted from 121 docked models using a substrate-imprinted docking approach. Q14F, S36L, and S75T mutants have shown a high binding affinity to D-glucuronic acid and its substrate intermediates such as D-glucaro-1,4-lactone and D-glucaro-1,5-lactone. These mutants exhibited a low binding affinity to the substrate and cofactor required for D-galactaric acid. D34S, N112E and S165E mutants found to show a high selectivity of D-galacturonic acid and its substrate intermediates for D-galactaric acid production. Ser75, Ser165, and Arg174 are active residues playing an imperative role in the substrate selectivity and also contributed in the conjecture the mechanism of transition state stabilization catalyzed by AtuUdh mutants. The present approach was used to reveal the substrate binding mechanism of AtuUdh mutants for a better understanding of the structural basis for selectivity and function.

A microbial production platform has been developed in Escherichia coli to synthesize d-glyceric acid from d-galacturonate. The expression of uronate dehydrogenase (udh) from Pseudomonas syringae and galactarolactone isomerase (gli) from Agrobacterium fabrum, along with the inactivation of garK, encoding for glycerate kinase, enables d-glyceric acid accumulation by utilizing the endogenous expression of galactarate dehydratase (garD), 5-keto-4-deoxy-D-glucarate aldolase (garL), and 2-hydroxy-3-oxopropionate reductase (garR). Optimization of carbon flux through the elimination of competing metabolic pathways led to the development of a ΔgarKΔhyiΔglxKΔuxaC mutant strain that produced 4.8 g/l of d-glyceric acid from d-galacturonate, with an 83% molar yield. Cultivation in a minimal medium produced similar yields and demonstrated that galactose or glycerol serve as possible carbon co-feeds for industrial production. This novel platform represents an alternative for the production of d-glyceric acid, an industrially relevant chemical, that addresses current challenges in using acetic acid bacteria for its synthesis: increasing yield, enantio-purity and biological stability., U.S. Army Research Office (Contract W911NF-09-0001)

Chromohalobacter salixigens contains a uronate dehydrogenase termed CsUDH that can convert uronic acids to their corresponding C1,C6-dicarboxy aldaric acids, an important enzyme reaction applicable for biotechnological use of sugar acids. To increase the thermal stability of this enzyme for biotechnological processes, directed evolution using gene family shuffling was applied, and the hits selected from 2-tier screening of a shuffled gene family library contained in total 16 mutations, only some of which when examined individually appreciably increased thermal stability. Most mutations, while having minimal or no effect on thermal stability when tested in isolation, were found to exhibit synergy when combined; CsUDH-inc containing all 16 mutations had ΔK t0.5 +18 °C, such that kcat was unaffected by incubation for 1 h at ∼70 °C. X-ray crystal structure of CsUDH-inc showed tight packing of the mutated residue side-chains, and comparison of rescaled B-values showed no obvious differences between wild type and mutant structures. Activity of CsUDH-inc was severely depressed on glucuronic and galacturonic acids. Combining select combinations of only three mutations resulted in good or comparable activity on these uronic acids, while maintaining some improved thermostability with ΔK t0.5 ∼+ 10 °C, indicating potential to further thermally optimize CsUDH for hyperthermophilic reaction environments.

Background Glucaric acid, one of the aldaric acids, has been declared a “top value-added chemical from biomass”, and is especially important in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Biocatalytic production of glucaric acid from glucuronic acid is more environmentally friendly, efficient and economical than chemical synthesis. Uronate dehydrogenases (UDHs) are the key enzymes for the preparation of glucaric acid in this way, but the poor thermostability and low activity of UDH limit its industrial application. Therefore, improving the thermostability and activity of UDH, for example by semi-rational design, is a major research goal. Results In the present work, three UDHs were obtained from different Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains. The three UDHs have an approximate molecular weight of 32 kDa and all contain typically conserved UDH motifs. All three UDHs showed optimal activity within a pH range of 6.0–8.5 and at a temperature of 30 °C, but the UDH from A. tumefaciens (At) LBA4404 had a better catalytic efficiency than the other two UDHs (800 vs 600 and 530 s−1 mM−1). To further boost the catalytic performance of the UDH from AtLBA4404, site-directed mutagenesis based on semi-rational design was carried out. An A39P/H99Y/H234K triple mutant showed a 400-fold improvement in half-life at 59 °C, a 5 °C improvement in $$ {\text{T}}_{ 5 0}^{ 1 0} $$ T 50 10 value and a 2.5-fold improvement in specific activity at 30 °C compared to wild-type UDH. Conclusions In this study, we successfully obtained a triple mutant (A39P/H99Y/H234K) with simultaneously enhanced activity and thermostability, which provides a novel alternative for the industrial production of glucaric acid from glucuronic acid.

A thermostable uronate dehydrogenase Tb-UDH from Thermobispora bispora was over-expressed in Escherichia coli using the T7 polymerase expression system. The Tb-UDH was purified by metal affinity chromatography, and gave a single band on SDS-PAGE. The maximum activity on glucuronic acid was found at 60 °C and pH 7.0. The purified enzyme retained over 58% of its activity after holding a pH ranging from 7.0 to 7.5 for 1 h at 60 °C. The Km and Vmax values of the purified Tb-UDH for Glucuronic acid (GluUA) were 0.165 mM and 117.7 U mg−1, respectively, those for galacturonic acid (GalUA) were 0.115 mM and 104.2 U mg−1, respectively, and those for NAD+ were 0.120 mM and 133.3 U mg−1, respectively; the turnover number (kcat) with GluUA as a substrate was higher than that with GalUA; however, the Michaelis constant (Km) for GalUA was lower than that for GluUA. After 60 min of incubation at 50 °C, Tb-UDH exhibited a conversion ratio for glucuronic acid to the glucaric acid of 84% on chemical reagent and 81.3% on hydrolysates from breech xylans formed by xylanase and α-glucuronidase. This work shows that biocatalytic routes have great potential for the conversion of hemicellulose substrate into value-added products derived from renewable biomass. (A) The structure of the xylan is described and the site of action of the xylan degrading enzyme is indicated. (B) The effect of substrate concentration on recombinant Tb-UDH activity when galacturonic acid was used as substrate. (C) SDS-PAGE analysis of E. coli BL21 (DE3) harboring pET-20b(+) and pET-20b-Tb-UDH. (D) Oxidative conversion of glucuronic acid from a beechwood xylan to glucaric acid

Background Glucaric acid is a high-value-added chemical that can be used in various fields. Because chemical oxidation of glucose to produce glucaric acid is not environmentally friendly, microbial production has attracted increasing interest recently. Biological pathways to synthesize glucaric acid from glucose in both Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae by co-expression of genes encoding myo-inositol-1-phosphate synthase (Ino1), myo-inositol oxygenase (MIOX), and uronate dehydrogenase (Udh) have been constructed. However, low activity and instability of MIOX from Mus musculus was proved to be the bottleneck in this pathway. Results A more stable miox4 from Arabidopsis thaliana was chosen in the present study. In addition, high copy delta-sequence integration of miox4 into the S. cerevisiae genome was performed to increase its expression level further. Enzymatic assay and quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that delta-sequence-based integrative expression increased MIOX4 activity and stability, thus increasing glucaric acid titer about eight times over that of episomal expression. By fed-batch fermentation supplemented with 60 mM (10.8 g/L) inositol, the multi-copy integrative expression S. cerevisiae strain produced 6 g/L (28.6 mM) glucaric acid from myo-inositol, the highest titer that had been ever reported in S. cerevisiae. Conclusions In this study, glucaric acid titer was increased to 6 g/L in S. cerevisiae by integrating the miox4 gene from A. thaliana and the udh gene from Pseudomonas syringae into the delta sequence of genomes. Delta-sequence-based integrative expression increased both the number of target gene copies and their stabilities. This approach could be used for a wide range of metabolic pathway engineering applications with S. cerevisiae. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12934-018-0914-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background meso-Galactaric acid is a dicarboxylic acid that can be produced by the oxidation of d-galacturonic acid, the main constituent of pectin. Mould strains can be engineered to perform this oxidation by expressing the bacterial enzyme uronate dehydrogenase. In addition, the endogenous pathway for d-galacturonic acid catabolism has to be inactivated. The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger would be a suitable strain for galactaric acid production since it is efficient in pectin hydrolysis, however, it is catabolizing the resulting galactaric acid via an unknown catabolic pathway. Results In this study, a transcriptomics approach was used to identify genes involved in galactaric acid catabolism. Several genes were deleted using CRISPR/Cas9 together with in vitro synthesized sgRNA. As a result, galactaric acid catabolism was disrupted. An engineered A. niger strain combining the disrupted galactaric and d-galacturonic acid catabolism with an expression of a heterologous uronate dehydrogenase produced galactaric acid from d-galacturonic acid. The resulting strain was also converting pectin-rich biomass to galactaric acid in a consolidated bioprocess. Conclusions In the present study, we demonstrated the use of CRISPR/Cas9 mediated gene deletion technology in A. niger in an metabolic engineering application. As a result, a strain for the efficient production of galactaric acid from d-galacturonic acid was generated. The present study highlights the usefulness of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in the metabolic engineering of filamentous fungi. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12934-016-0613-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: meso-Galactaric acid is a dicarboxylic acid that can be produced by the oxidation of d-galacturonic acid, the main constituent of pectin. Mould strains can be engineered to perform this oxidation by expressing the bacterial enzyme uronate dehydrogenase. In addition, the endogenous pathway for d-galacturonic acid catabolism has to be inactivated. The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger would be a suitable strain for galactaric acid production since it is efficient in pectin hydrolysis, however, it is catabolizing the resulting galactaric acid via an unknown catabolic pathway. Results : In this study, a transcriptomics approach was used to identify genes involved in galactaric acid catabolism. Several genes were deleted using CRISPR/Cas9 together with in vitro synthesized sgRNA. As a result, galactaric acid catabolism was disrupted. An engineered A. niger strain combining the disrupted galactaric and d-galacturonic acid catabolism with an expression of a heterologous uronate dehydrogenase produced galactaric acid from d-galacturonic acid. The resulting strain was also converting pectin-rich biomass to galactaric acid in a consolidated bioprocess. Conclusions: In the present study, we demonstrated the use of CRISPR/Cas9 mediated gene deletion technology in A. niger in an metabolic engineering application. As a result, a strain for the efficient production of galactaric acid from d-galacturonic acid was generated. The present study highlights the usefulness of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in the metabolic engineering of filamentous fungi.

Microorganisms use different pathways for D-galacturonate catabolism. In the known microbial oxidative pathway, D-galacturonate is oxidized to D-galactarolactone, the lactone hydrolyzed to galactarate, which is further converted to 3-deoxy-2- keto-hexarate and α-ketoglutarate. We have shown recently that Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58 contains an uronate dehydrogenase (At Udh) that oxidizes D-galacturonic acid to D-galactarolactone. Here we report identification of a novel enzyme from the same A. tumefaciens strain, which we named Galactarolactone cycloisomerase (At Gci) (E.C. 5.5.1.-), for the direct conversion of the D-galactarolactone to 3-deoxy-2-ketohexarate. The At Gci enzyme is 378 amino acids long and belongs to the mandelate racemase subgroup in the enolase superfamily. At Gci was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli, and the purified enzyme was found to exist as an octameric form. It is active both on D-galactarolactone and D-glucarolactone, but does not work on the corresponding linear hexaric acid forms. The details of the reaction mechanism were further studied by NMR and optical rotation demonstrating that the reaction product of At Gci from D-galactaro-1,4-lactone and D-glucaro- 1,4-lactone conversion is in both cases the L-threo form of 3-deoxy-2-keto-hexarate.

Uronate dehydrogenase has been cloned from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato strain DC3000, Pseudomonas putida KT2440, and Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58. The genes were identified by using a novel complementation assay employing an Escherichia coli mutant incapable of consuming glucuronate as the sole carbon source but capable of growth on glucarate. A shotgun library of P. syringae was screened in the mutant E. coli by growing transformed cells on minimal medium containing glucuronic acid. Colonies that survived were evaluated for uronate dehydrogenase, which is capable of converting glucuronic acid to glucaric acid. In this manner, a 0.8-kb open reading frame was identified and subsequently verified to be udh . Homologous enzymes in P. putida and A. tumefaciens were identified based on a similarity search of the sequenced genomes. Recombinant proteins from each of the three organisms expressed in E. coli were purified and characterized. For all three enzymes, the turnover number ( k cat ) with glucuronate as a substrate was higher than that with galacturonate; however, the Michaelis constant ( K m ) for galacturonate was lower than that for glucuronate. The A. tumefaciens enzyme was found to have the highest rate constant ( k cat = 1.9 × 10 2 s −1 on glucuronate), which was more than twofold higher than those of both of the pseudomonad enzymes.

(Figure Presented) Agrobacterium tumefaciens (At) strain C58 contains an oxidative enzyme pathway that can function on both D-glucuronic and D-galacturonic acid. The corresponding gene coding for At keto-deoxy-D-galactarate (KDG) dehydratase is located in the same gene cluster as those coding for uronate dehydrogenase (At Udh) and galactarolactone cycloisomerase (At Gci) which we have previously characterized. Here, we present the kinetic characterization and crystal structure of At KDG dehydratase, which catalyzes the next step, the decarboxylating hydrolyase reaction of KDG to produce α-ketoglutaric semialdehyde (α-KGSA) and carbon dioxide. The crystal structures of At KDG dehydratase and its complexes with pyruvate and 2-oxoadipic acid, two substrate analogues, were determined to 1.7 A˚, 1.5 A˚, and 2.1 A˚ resolution, respectively. Furthermore, mass spectrometry was used to confirm reaction end-products. The results lead us to propose a structure-based mechanism for At KDG dehydratase, suggesting that while the enzyme belongs to the Class I aldolase protein family, it does not follow a typical retro-aldol condensation mechanism.

Urologists frequently rely on symptom and problem indexes to monitor patients with interstitial cystitis (IC). Uronic acid is a component of most glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which is a protective bladder urothelium coating. We evaluated whether urinary uronate and sulfated GAG levels correlate with IC severity and we characterized urinary GAG species.Urine samples, and a completed O'Leary-Sant IC symptom and problem index questionnaire were obtained from 37 patients with IC and 14 normal individuals. Patients with IC were in group 1-1 or 2 indexes less than 50% the maximum score or group 2-each index 50% or greater the maximum score. All patients fulfilled National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases criteria except glomerulations. Urinary uronate was fractionated using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CETAB). Uronate and sulfated GAG levels in urine, CETAB precipitates and CETAB supernatants were measured by the Bitter and Muir, and Farndale assays, respectively, and normalized to creatinine in microg/mg creatinine. GAG species were analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis.Mean urinary uronate levels were increased in group 2 compared with normal and group 1 values regardless of glomerulations and treatment (1,614 +/- 904.6 vs 612.4 +/- 327.2 and 593.8 +/- 422.1 microg/mg creatinine, respectively, p0.001). A small portion of urinary uronate was CETAB precipitable, representing macromolecular GAGs. Uronate levels in CETAB precipitates and CETAB supernatants were approximately 2.8-fold increased in group 2 (8.0 +/- 5.07 and 1,393 +/- 671.9 microg/mg creatinine, respectively) compared with normal and group 1 values (p0.001), and they contained fast and slow moving GAG species. Uronate and sulfated GAG had 80% and 88% sensitivity, and 92.3% and 69.2% specificity, respectively, to detect IC severity.The majority of urinary GAGs likely exist as small oligosaccharides. Urinary uronate and sulfated GAG levels are increased in patients with IC who have severe disease. They may become useful markers for monitoring IC.

d-Glucuronate is a key metabolite in the process of detoxification of xenobiotics and in a recently constructed synthetic pathway to produce d-glucaric acid, a “top value-added chemical” from biomass. A simple and specific assay of d-glucuronate would be useful for studying these processes, but existing assays are either time-consuming or nonspecific. Using uronate dehydrogenase cloned from Agrobacterium tumefaciens, we developed an assay for d-glucuronate with a detection limit of 5 μM. This method was shown to be more suitable for a system with many interfering compounds than previous methods and was also applied to assays for myo-inositol oxygenase activity., United States. Office of Naval Research. Young Investigator Program (N000140510656), National Science Foundation (U.S.) (EEC-0540879), Merck & Co., Inc. (Undergraduate Research Grant)

1. Uronic acid dehydrogenase was purified to homogeneity. After a 338-fold purification a yield of 16% was achieved with a specific activity of 81 mumol NADH formed min-1 mg protein-1. 2. The purity of the enzyme was controlled by disc electrophoresis, sodium dodecylsulfate electrophoresis and ultracentrifugation. 3. A molecular weight of 60 000 was determined by gel chromatography and by ultracentrifugation. 4. The native enzyme is composed of two subunits, their molecular weight being 30 000 as estimated by sodium dodecylsulfate electrophoresis. The subunits as such are inactive. 5. The absorption spectrum with a maximum at 278 nm shows no evidence for a prosthetic group. 6. For catalytic activity no SH groups and no metals seem to be necessary. 7. The Michaelis constants determined with the pure enzyme are for glucuronic acid Km = 0.37 mM, galacturonic acid Km = 54 muM and NAD+ (with glucuronic acid) Km = 80 muM. 8. A weak reverse reaction could be observed with glucaric acid lactones at acidic pH. 9. NADH is competitive with NAD+. The inhibitor constant is Ki = 60 muM. 10. The NAD+ binding site seems to be of lower specificity than the uronic acid binding site.

An NAD-linked, galacturonate- or glucuronate-induced enzyme, uronate dehy-drogenase (uronate: NAD-oxidoreductase), was purified 54-fold from cells of Pseudomonas syringae . This enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of d -galacturonic acid to galactaric acid and d -glucuronic acid to glucaric acid. This uronate dehydrogenase utilizes NAD but not NADP as a co-factor. It exhibits unusual heat lability since all activity is lost in preparations held at 35 ° for 30 min; but stability is enhanced by the addition of 0.58 m m NAD. The optimum pH for the oxidation of galacturonate occurs between 7.0 and 8.4. HgCl 2 at 10 −3 m completely inhibits uronate dehydrogenase activity. Uronate dehydrogenase can be used for the quantitative detection of galacturonate or glucuronate.

Cell-free extract (crude extract) of Agrobacterium tumefaciens grown on d -glucuronate or d -glucarate converts d -glucarate and galactarate to a mixture of 2-keto-3-deoxy- and 4-deoxy-5-keto- d -glucarate. These compounds are then converted by partially purified crude extract to an intermediate tentatively identified as 2,5-diketoadipate. The same enzyme preparation further decarboxylates this intermediate to α-ketoglutarate semialdehyde, which is subsequently oxidized in a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent reaction to α-ketoglutaric acid. Since A. tumefaciens converts d -glucuronic acid to d -glucarate, a pathway from d -glucuronate to α-ketoglutarate in A. tumefaciens was determined.

Aldaric acids represent biobased ‘top value-added chemicals’ that have the potential to substitute petroleum-derived chemicals. Until today they are mostly produced from corresponding aldoses using strong chemical oxidizing agents. An environmentally friendly and more selective process could be achieved by using natural resources such as seaweed or pectin as raw material. These contain large amounts of uronic acids as major constituents such as glucuronic acid and galacturonic acid which can be converted into the corresponding aldaric acids via an enzyme-based oxidation using uronate dehydrogenase (Udh). The Udh from Agrobacterium tumefaciens (UdhAt) features the highest catalytic efficiency of all characterized Udhs using glucuronic acid as substrate (829 s−1 mM−1). Unfortunately, it suffers from poor thermostability. To overcome this limitation, we created more thermostable variants using semi-rational design. The amino acids for substitution were chosen according to the B factor in combination with four additional knowledge-based criteria. The triple variant A41P/H101Y/H236K showed higher kinetic and thermodynamic stability with a T 50 15 value of 62.2 °C (3.2 °C improvement) and a ∆∆GU of 2.3 kJ/mol compared to wild type. Interestingly, it was only obtained when including a neutral mutation in the combination.

Bioconversion of d-galacturonic acid to galactaric (mucic) acid has previously been carried out in small scale (50–1000 mL) cultures, which produce tens of grams of galactaric acid. To obtain larger amounts of biologically produced galactaric acid, the process needed to be scaled up using a readily available technical substrate. Food grade pectin was selected as a readily available source of d-galacturonic acid for conversion to galactaric acid. We demonstrated that the process using Trichoderma reesei QM6a Δgar1 udh can be scaled up from 1 L to 10 and 250 L, replacing pure d-galacturonic acid with commercially available pectin. T. reesei produced 18 g L−1 galactaric acid from food-grade pectin (yield 1.00 g [g d-galacturonate consumed]−1) when grown at 1 L scale, 21 g L−1 galactaric acid (yield 1.11 g [g d-galacturonate consumed]−1) when grown at 10 L scale and 14 g L−1 galactaric acid (yield 0.77 g [g d-galacturonate consumed]−1) when grown at 250 L scale. Initial production rates were similar to those observed in 500 mL cultures with pure d-galacturonate as substrate. Approximately 2.8 kg galactaric acid was precipitated from the 250 L culture, representing a recovery of 77% of the galactaric acid in the supernatant. In addition to scaling up, we also demonstrated that the process could be scaled down to 4 mL for screening of production strains in 24-well plate format. Production of galactaric acid from pectin was assessed for three strains expressing uronate dehydrogenase under alternative promoters and up to 11 g L−1 galactaric acid were produced in the batch process. The process of producing galactaric acid by bioconversion with T. reesei was demonstrated to be equally efficient using pectin as it was with d-galacturonic acid. The 24-well plate batch process will be useful screening new constructs, but cannot replace process optimisation in bioreactors. Scaling up to 250 L demonstrated good reproducibility with the smaller scale but there was a loss in yield at 250 L which indicated that total biomass extraction and more efficient DSP would both be needed for a large scale process.

Background Two marine fungi, a Trichoderma sp. and a Coniochaeta sp., which can grow on d-galacturonic acid and pectin, were selected as hosts to engineer for mucic acid production, assessing the suitability of marine fungi for production of platform chemicals. The pathway for biotechnologcial production of mucic (galactaric) acid from d-galacturonic acid is simple and requires minimal modification of the genome, optimally one deletion and one insertion. d-Galacturonic acid, the main component of pectin, is a potential substrate for bioconversion, since pectin-rich waste is abundant. Results Trichoderma sp. LF328 and Coniochaeta sp. MF729 were engineered using CRISPR-Cas9 to oxidize d-galacturonic acid to mucic acid, disrupting the endogenous pathway for d-galacturonic acid catabolism when inserting a gene encoding bacterial uronate dehydrogenase. The uronate dehydrogenase was expressed under control of a synthetic expression system, which fucntioned in both marine strains. The marine Trichoderma transformants produced 25 g L−1 mucic acid from d-galacturonic acid in equimolar amounts: the yield was 1.0 to 1.1 g mucic acid [g d-galacturonic acid utilized]−1. d-Xylose and lactose were the preferred co-substrates. The engineered marine Trichoderma sp. was more productive than the best Trichoderma reesei strain (D-161646) described in the literature to date, that had been engineered to produce mucic acid. With marine Coniochaeta transformants, d-glucose was the preferred co-substrate, but the highest yield was 0.82 g g−1: a portion of d-galacturonic acid was still metabolized. Coniochaeta sp. transformants produced adequate pectinases to produce mucic acid from pectin, but Trichoderma sp. transformants did not. Conclusions Both marine species were successfully engineered using CRISPR-Cas9 and the synthetic expression system was functional in both species. Although Coniochaeta sp. transformants produced mucic acid directly from pectin, the metabolism of d-galacturonic acid was not completely disrupted and mucic acid amounts were low. The d-galacturonic pathway was completely disrupted in the transformants of the marine Trichoderma sp., which produced more mucic acid than a previously constructed T. reesei mucic acid producing strain, when grown under similar conditions. This demonstrated that marine fungi may be useful as production organisms, not only for native enzymes or bioactive compounds, but also for other compounds.

Summary Uronate dehydrogenases catalyse the oxidation of uronic acids to aldaric acids, which represent ‘top value-added chemicals’ that have the potential to substitute petroleum-derived chemicals. The identification and annotation of three uronate dehydrogenases derived from Fulvimarina pelagi HTCC2506, Streptomyces viridochromogenes DSM 40736 and Oceanicola granulosus DSM 15982 via sequence analysis is described. Characterization and comparison with two known uronate dehydrogenases in regard to substrate spectrum, catalytic activity and pH as well as temperature dependence was performed. The catalytic efficiency was investigated in two different buffer systems; potassium phosphate and Tris-HCl. In addition to the typical and well available substrates glucuronate and galacturonate also mannuronate as part of many structural polysaccharides were tested. The uronate dehydrogenase of Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Pseudomonas syringae showed catalytic dependency on the buffer system resulting in an increased Km especially for glucuronate in potassium phosphate compared with Tris-HCl buffer. Enzyme stability at 37°C of the different Udhs was in the order: P. syringae

meso-Galactaric acid is a dicarboxylic acid that can be produced by the oxidation of d-galacturonic acid, the main constituent of pectin. Mould strains can be engineered to perform this oxidation by expressing the bacterial enzyme uronate dehydrogenase. In addition, the endogenous pathway for d-galacturonic acid catabolism has to be inactivated. The filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger would be a suitable strain for galactaric acid production since it is efficient in pectin hydrolysis, however, it is catabolizing the resulting galactaric acid via an unknown catabolic pathway. In this study, a transcriptomics approach was used to identify genes involved in galactaric acid catabolism. Several genes were deleted using CRISPR/Cas9 together with in vitro synthesized sgRNA. As a result, galactaric acid catabolism was disrupted. An engineered A. niger strain combining the disrupted galactaric and d-galacturonic acid catabolism with an expression of a heterologous uronate dehydrogenase produced galactaric acid from d-galacturonic acid. The resulting strain was also converting pectin-rich biomass to galactaric acid in a consolidated bioprocess. In the present study, we demonstrated the use of CRISPR/Cas9 mediated gene deletion technology in A. niger in an metabolic engineering application. As a result, a strain for the efficient production of galactaric acid from d-galacturonic acid was generated. The present study highlights the usefulness of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in the metabolic engineering of filamentous fungi.