Inbiose N.v.

Universiteit Gent

Jo Maertens

Joeri Beauprez

Marjan De Mey

Gaspard Lequeux

Pieter Coussement

Wouter Van Bellegem

Dries Duchi

David Bauwens

A method or producing amino sugar (containing) products using metabolically engineered microorganisms is disclosed, wherein the conversion of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine to cell envelope precursors and molecules is reduced by altering the activity of enzymes involved in the synthesis of cell envelope precursors and molecules.

Method for the production of amino sugar-containing products

The present invention relates to genetically engineered organisms, especially microorganisms such as bacteria and yeasts, for the production of added value bio-products such as specialty saccharide, activated saccharide, nucleoside, glycoside, glycolipid or glycoprotein. More specifically, the present invention relates to host cells that are metabolically engineered so that they can produce said valuable specialty products in large quantities and at a high rate by bypassing classical technical problems that occur in biocatalytical or fermentative production processes.

Metabolically engineered organisms for the production of added value bio-products

The present invention relates to mutated and/or transformed microorganisms for the synthesis of various compounds. More specifically, the present invention discloses microorganisms mutated in the genes encoding for the regulators ArcA and IclR. The latter mutations result in a significant upregulation of the genes that are part of the colanic acid operon. Hence, said microorganisms are useful for the synthesis of any compound being part of the colanic acid pathway such as GDP-fucose, GDP-mannose and colanic acid, and/or, can be further used&#x2014;starting form GDP-fucose as a precursor&#x2014;to synthesize fucosylated oligosaccharides or&#x2014;starting from GDP-mannose as a precursor&#x2014;to synthesize mannosylated oligosaccharides. In addition, mutations in the genes coding for the transcriptional regulators ArcA and IclR lead to an acid resistance phenotype in the exponential growth phase allowing the synthesis of pH sensitive molecules or organic acids.

Mutant microorganisms to synthesize colanic acid, mannosylated and/or fucosylated oligosaccharides

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Ghent, Belgium

Jo Maertens