The discovery and utilization of biocatalysts that selectively valorize lignocellulose is critical to the profitability of next-generation biorefineries. Here, we report the development of a refactored, whole-cell, GFP-based biosensor for high-throughput identification of biocatalysts that transform lignin into specialty chemicals from environmental DNA of uncultivable archaea and bacteria. The biosensor comprises the transcriptional regulator and promoter of the emrRAB operon of E. coli, and the configuration of the biosensor was tuned with the aid of mathematical model. The biosensor sensitively and selectively detects vanillin and syringaldehyde, and responds linearly over a wide detection range. We employed the biosensor to screen 42 520 fosmid clones comprising environmental DNA isolated from two coal beds and successfully identified 147 clones that transform hardwood kraft lignin to vanillin and syringaldehyde.

中文翻译：

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一种改进的全细胞生物传感器，用于在功能性基因组筛查中发现木质素转化酶。

选择性增值木质纤维素的生物催化剂的发现和利用对于下一代生物精炼厂的盈利能力至关重要。在这里，我们报告了一种可重构，基于全细胞，基于GFP的生物传感器的开发，该传感器可高通量鉴定将木质素从无法培养的古细菌和细菌的环境DNA转化为特殊化学物质的生物催化剂。该生物传感器包含大肠杆菌emrRAB操纵子的转录调节子和启动子。，并借助数学模型对生物传感器的配置进行了调整。该生物传感器灵敏且选择性地检测香兰素和丁香醛，并在较宽的检测范围内线性响应。我们使用生物传感器筛选了包含从两个煤层中分离出的环境DNA的42 520个fosmid克隆，并成功鉴定了147个将硬木牛皮纸木质素转化为香兰素和丁香醛的克隆。