L-lactate production from biodiesel-derived crude glycerol by metabolically engineered Enterococcus faecalis: Cytotoxic evaluation of biodiesel waste and development of a glycerol-inducible gene expression system

Abstract

Biodiesel waste is a by-product of the biodiesel production process that contains a large amount of crude glycerol. To reuse the crude glycerol, a novel bioconversion process using Enterococcus faecalis was developed through physiological studies. The E. faecalis strain W11 could use biodiesel waste as a carbon source, although cell growth was significantly inhibited by the oil component in the biodiesel waste, which decreased the cellular NADH/NAD+ ratio and then induced oxidative stress to cells. When W11 was cultured with glycerol, the maximum culture density (optical density at 600 nm [OD600]) under anaerobic conditions was decreased 8-fold by the oil component compared with that under aerobic conditions. Furthermore, W11 cultured with dihydroxyacetone (DHA) could show slight or no growth in the presence of the oil component with or without oxygen. These results indicated that the DHA kinase reaction in the glycerol metabolic pathway was sensitive to the oil component as an oxidant. The lactate dehydrogenase (Ldh) activity of W11 during anaerobic glycerol metabolism was 4.1-fold lower than that during aerobic glycerol metabolism, which was one of the causes of low L-lactate productivity. The E. faecalis pflB gene disruptant (Δpfl mutant) expressing the ldhL1LP gene produced 300mML-lactate from glycerol/crude glycerol with a yield of >99% within 48 h and reached a maximum productivity of 18 mMh-1 (1.6 g liter-1 h-1). Thus, our study demonstrates that metabolically engineered E. faecalis can convert crude glycerol to L-lactate at high conversion efficiency and provides critical information on the recycling process for biodiesel waste.