The economic viability of a protein-production process relies highly on the production titer and the price of raw materials. Crude glycerol coming from the production of biodiesel is a renewable and cost-effective resource. However, glycerol is inefficiently utilized by Escherichia coli. This issue was addressed by rewiring glycerol metabolism for redistribution of the metabolic flux. Key steps in central metabolism involving the glycerol dissimilation pathway, the pentose phosphate pathway, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle were pinpointed and manipulated to provide precursor metabolites and energy. As a result, the engineered E. coli strain displayed a 9- and 30-fold increase in utilization of crude glycerol and production of the target protein, respectively. The result indicates that the present method of metabolic engineering is useful and straightforward for efficient adjustment of the flux distribution in glycerol metabolism. The practical application of this methodology in biorefinery and the related field would be acknowledged.

中文翻译：

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重组大肠杆菌中的甘油代谢以有效生产重组蛋白

蛋白质生产过程的经济可行性在很大程度上取决于生产效价和原材料价格。来自生物柴油生产的粗甘油是一种可再生且具有成本效益的资源。但是，大肠杆菌不能有效地利用甘油。通过重新布线甘油代谢以重新分配代谢通量可以解决此问题。精确定位和代谢涉及甘油异化途径，戊糖磷酸途径和三羧酸循环的主要代谢步骤，以提供前体代谢产物和能量。结果，工程化的大肠杆菌菌株在粗甘油的利用和目标蛋白的产生上分别显示出9倍和30倍的增加。结果表明，本发明的代谢工程方法对于有效地调节甘油代谢中的通量分布是有用和直接的。这种方法在生物炼制及相关领域的实际应用将是公认的。