Abstract
To avoid conflict between biofuel and food resource production, marine macroalgae (main algal polysaccharides) have been suggested as potent feedstock for biofuel production. Flammeovirga pacifica WPAGA1, a typical marine polysaccharide-degrading bacterium, can utilize crude agarose as the sole carbon source. Transcriptomic analysis was performed to further investigate the metabolic pathway of environmental-friendly utilization of crude agarose in F. pacifica WPAGA1. All these enzymes were overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3), and the purified enzymes were characterized in vitro. As a result, the pathway of crude agarose which is desulfurized and hydrolyzed by enzymes to produce fermentable sugar is clear. Interestingly, sole neoagarobiose (~450 mg/L) was produced from crude agarose as a feedstock using engineered E. coli BL21(DE3). This study firstly reveals the metabolic pathway of crude agarose in strain WPAGA1 and establishes a novel and environmental-friendly strategy for neoagarobiose production using crude agarose as cost-effective and non-food-based feedstock.