Balanced regulation of dual pathways for efficient L-homoserine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum

  • PAN Yue ,
  • ZHANG Xinyu ,
  • LIU Qingdai ,
  • LIU Jun ,
  • WEI Liang
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  • 1(College of Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China)
    2(College of Food Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China)
    3(Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, China)

Received date: 2024-03-26

  Revised date: 2024-07-03

  Online published: 2026-03-25

Abstract

L-homoserine is an important non-proteinogenic amino acid with wide-ranging applications in the feed, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries.Currently, the synthesis of L-homoserine mainly relies on two technical routes:chemical synthesis and microbial fermentation.Among them, microbial fermentation has attracted considerable attention due to its environmental friendliness and cost-effectiveness, and is regarded as a promising approach for the green manufacturing of L-homoserine.Corynebacterium glutamicum, a food-grade industrial microorganism, has emerged as a promising host for L-homoserine production.However, current metabolic engineering efforts targeting C.glutamicum remain limited, and the achieved titers and yields of L-homoserine are still insufficient to meet the demands of industrial-scale applications.In this study, C.glutamicum was employed as the chassis strain for systematic metabolic engineering to construct a robust L-homoserine-producing cell factory.By eliminating degradation pathways and reconstructing the dual biosynthetic routes involving AspC and AspA, a basal chassis strain with L-homoserine biosynthetic capacity was first established.Subsequently, further improvements were achieved through enhancing precursor supply, fine-tuning the metabolic fluxes of the dual pathways, and optimizing NADPH regeneration.The final engineered strain, HOM21, achieved a titer of 95.8 g/L in a 5-liter bioreactor, with a production rate of 1.6 g/(L·h) and a glucose conversion yield of 0.45 g/g, representing the highest level of L-homoserine production reported for C.glutamicum to date.This study provides a comprehensive metabolic engineering strategy for the efficient biosynthesis of L-homoserine in C.glutamicum, elucidates key rate-limiting steps and their regulatory optimization, and offers theoretical and practical guidance for the industrial-scale green production of L-homoserine.

Cite this article

PAN Yue , ZHANG Xinyu , LIU Qingdai , LIU Jun , WEI Liang . Balanced regulation of dual pathways for efficient L-homoserine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum[J]. Food and Fermentation Industries, 2026 , 52(5) : 35 -43 . DOI: 10.13995/j.cnki.11-1802/ts.042849

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