提高微生物油脂生产能力的研究进展

微生物油脂是生物柴油生产领域具有广阔前景的新油脂资源。然而, 利用产油微生物进行油脂的工业化生产仍存在限氮条件下油脂生产强度不够高、对廉价高氮生物质原料的利用效率低等瓶颈问题。随着近年来发酵工程、生物信息学及分子生物学技术的发展, 国内外研究者利用不同策略优化微生物油脂的生产条件, 并对其油脂积累代谢途径进行改造, 旨在获得适用于工业化生产的产油性能优良的油脂菌。本综述总结了国内外利用生化工程、基因工程以及新兴的转录因子工程策略提高产油微生物油脂生产强度和扩大产油微生物廉价底物利用范围方面的研究进展, 并展望了基于组学研究、模块途径工程以及反向代谢工程的综合策略在理性改造产油微生物以提高其油脂发酵性能中的应用。     

加快微生物油脂研究为生物柴油产业提供廉价原料

当前国内外致力于发展生物柴油,因其性能优良,成为化石柴油的替代品。由于以植物油脂生产生物柴油原料成本占总成本的70％-85％,所以亟待开发廉价油脂资源。微生物油脂主要是微生物利用碳水化合物合成的甘油脂,其脂肪酸组成和植物油相近。产油微生物具有资源丰富、油脂含量高、碳源利用谱广等特点,开发潜力大。然而,目前微生物油脂生产成本偏高,研究工作仍以富含多不饱和脂肪酸的高附加值菌油为目标。随着现代分子生物学和生物化工技术的发展,对产油微生物菌种筛选、改良、代谢调控和发酵工程的研究日趋深入,将降低微生物油脂生产成本,为未来生物柴油产业提供廉价原料。     

人工电活性微生物菌群的设计与应用

包括产电菌群和噬电菌群的人工电活性微生物菌群(synthetic electroactive microbial consortia)通过菌种间的物质能量级联反应介导化学能与(光)电能间的相互转化，其可利用底物来源广泛、双向电子传递速率快、环境稳定性强，在清洁电能开发、废水处理、环境修复、生物固碳固氮以及生物燃料、无机纳米材料、高聚物等高值化学品合成等多个领域具有广泛的应用前景。针对人工电活性微生物菌群设计、构建与应用，本文总结电活性微生物菌群界面电子传递和种间电子传递机制，概括基于“劳力分工”原理设计构建人工电活性微生物菌群物质能量级联反应基本架构，总结菌群关系与菌群生态位优化等人工电活性微生物菌群工程化策略，分类列举人工电活性微生物菌群在利用廉价生物质产电、生物光伏固碳产电，光驱噬电生物菌群固氮等相关应用。最后对人工电活性微生物菌群未来研究方向进行了展望。     

发酵法生产生物表面活性剂

发酵法生产表面活性剂相对于化工法而言有着无可比拟的优势。综述了发酵法生产生物表面活性剂的微生物源、发酵机理、发酵条件和产物分离技术等方面的研究进展 ,并简要介绍了其工业应用前景。     

城市生活垃圾堆肥发酵中微生物菌群变化规律的研究

通过对垃圾处理厂静态堆肥不同区域的微生物菌群与数量的分析,表明了城市生活垃圾堆肥发酵中微生物菌群的变化规律,温度与微生物菌群的相关性,指出了高温微生物菌群数量影响堆肥的效率。建议在静态一次堆肥发酵周期中,增加通气量和翻堆频率,有利于增强微生物菌群的活力和提高堆肥质量。     

青稞酒发酵过程中的风味功能微生物及其风味代谢特征解析

[背景]青稞酒是一个多菌种固态发酵的产物,解析发酵过程中重要的功能微生物及其代谢特征对调控青稞酒发酵具有重要作用。[目的]揭示青稞酒发酵过程中的风味功能微生物并解析其风味代谢特征。[方法]基于高通量测序技术揭示青稞酒发酵过程中的微生物群落多样性和组成;采用顶空固相微萃取结合气相色谱-质谱技术跟踪酒醅的风味信息;通过微生物属与风味物质的关联分析揭示青稞酒发酵过程中风味功能微生物菌群,并采用蒙特卡洛检验分析进一步揭示发酵过程理化因子对风味功能微生物菌群的影响;于实验室环境下重构6株微生物发酵体系,以揭示其风味代谢特征。[结果]青稞酒发酵过程中9个真菌属和8个细菌属(相对丰度>1%)占据优势,其中Aspergillus、Komagataella、Lactobacillus、Pichia、Saccharomyces和Weissella是青稞酒发酵过程主要风味功能微生物;发酵过程中还原糖(r^2=0.946 9,P=0.013 2)和酸度(r^2=0.847 6,P=0.048 6)是驱动风味功能微生物菌群演替的关键因子;6株菌的组合发酵实验揭示了体外系统与原位系统具有相同的微生物演替现象与相似的风味轮廓。[结论]研究揭示了青稞酒发酵过程关键的风味功能微生物以及驱动该菌群演替的重要环境因子,并通过组合发酵实验验证了这些微生物的风味代谢特征,为青稞酒发酵过程的风味调控提供了新的视角。     

微生物能源的转化效率和经济可行性研究

生物质能源在中国,尤其是农村地区是一种十分重要的能源,然而,目前和将来油气资源的缺乏不仅影响国民经济的发展,而且危及能源安全。估算了4种最具应用前景的微生物能源包括微生物柴油,生物乙醇,氢气和沼气,并讨论了经济可行性及使用前景。其诣在帮助发展将生物质转化为燃料的技术,而此项技术对中国经济的发展具有重要的意义。     

从微生物组到合成功能菌群

微生物组是指特定微环境中的微生物群落及其组学,自然界中的生物过程几乎都是通过微生物组完成的。随着测序技术的发展和成本降低,微生物组已经成为微生物生态学研究的热点领域。继合成生物学之后,基于微生物组的合成功能菌群研究正在兴起,在人类健康、农业、工业和生态等领域都有广泛的应用前景。本文从微生物组到合成功能菌群的角度系统论述了其在不同领域的研究现状与发展趋势,为微生物组从理论研究到应用提供思路。     

工业微生物：创新与突破专刊序言(2021)

工业微生物及其产品广泛用于工业、农业、医药等诸多领域,相关产业在国民经济中具有举足轻重的地位。高效的菌株是提高生产效率的核心,而先进发酵技术和仪器平台对充分开发菌株代谢潜能也很重要。近年来,工业微生物领域的研究取得了快速进展,人工智能、高效基因组编辑技术和合成生物学技术逐渐广泛使用,相关产业应用也在不断扩展。为进一步促进工业微生物在生物制造等领域的应用,《生物工程学报》特组织出版专刊,从微生物菌株的多样性和生理代谢、菌株改造技术、发酵过程优化和放大,高通量微液滴培养装备开发以及工业微生物应用等方面,分别阐述目前的研究进展,并展望未来的发展趋势,为促进工业微生物及生物制造等产业的发展奠定基础。     

微生物菌剂在鸡粪有机肥料堆制发酵中的应用

降解鸡粪的微生物菌剂是由蛋白分解菌、纤维分解菌、酵母菌、光合细菌、乳酸菌等多种有益微生物组成。这些菌群在生长中产生的代谢物质相互利用,而不发生拮抗现象。在鸡粪堆制发酵过程中微生物菌群以辅料为载体与鸡粪组成了复杂而稳定的微生态系统,能够快速、环保地发酵鸡粪并增加肥效。介绍了微生物菌剂在鸡粪堆肥中的作用、机理、发酵工艺及研究现状。     

Microbial community composition and dynamics in a semi-industrial-scale facility operating under the MixAlco™ bioconversion platform

Aims:  To monitor microbial community dynamics in a semi‐industrial‐scale lignocellulosic biofuel reactor system and to improve our understanding of the microbial communities involved in the MixAlco? biomass conversion process. Methods and Results:  Reactor microbial communities were characterized at six time points over the course of an 80‐day, mesophilic, semi‐industrial‐scale fermentation using community qPCR and 16S rRNA tag‐pyrosequencing. We found the communities to be dynamic, bacterially dominated consortia capable of changing quickly in response to reactor conditions. Clostridia‐ and Bacteroidetes‐like organisms dominated the reactor communities, but ultimately the communities established consortia containing complementary functional capacities for the degradation of lignocellulosic materials. Eighteen operational taxonomic units were found to share strong correlations with reactor acid concentration and may represent taxa integral to fermentor performance. Conclusions:  The results of this study indicate that the emergence of complementary functional classes within the fermentor consortia may be a trait that is consistent across scales, and they suggest that there may be flexibility with respect to the specific identities of the organisms involved in the fermentor’s degradation and fermentation processes. Significance and Impact of the Study:  This study provides new information regarding the composition, dynamics and potential flexibility of the microbial communities associated with the MixAlco? process and is likely to inform the improvement of this and other applications that employ mixed microbial communities.     

Configuration of biological wastewater treatment line and influent composition as the main factors driving bacterial community structure of activated sludge

The structure of microbial consortia in wastewater treatment facilities is a resultant of environmental conditions created by the operational parameters of the purification process. In the research, activated sludge from nine Polish wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) was investigated at a molecular level to determine the impact of the complexity of biological treatment line and the influent composition on the species structure and the diversity of bacterial consortia. The community fingerprints and technological data were subjected to the canonical correspondence and correlation analyses. The number of separated biological processes realized in the treatment line and the presence of industrial wastewater in the influent were the key factors determining the species structure of total and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in biomass. The N₂O-reducers community composition depended significantly on the design of the facility; the highest species richness of denitrifiers was noted in the WWTPs with separated denitrification tanks. The contribution of industrial streams to the inflow affected the diversity of total and denitrifying bacterial consortia and diminished the diversity of ammonia oxidizers. The obtained data are valuable for engineers since they revealed the main factors, including the design of wastewater treatment plant, influencing the microbial groups critical for the stability of purification processes.     

New approaches in bioprocess‐control: Consortium guidance by synthetic cell‐cell communication based on fungal pheromones

Bioconversions in industrial processes are currently dominated by single‐strain approaches. With the growing complexity of tasks to be carried out, microbial consortia become increasingly advantageous and eventually may outperform single‐strain fermentations. Consortium approaches benefit from the combined metabolic capabilities of highly specialized strains and species, and the inherent division of labor reduces the metabolic burden for each strain while increasing product yields and reaction specificities. However, consortium‐based designs still suffer from a lack of available tools to control the behavior and performance of the individual subpopulations and of the entire consortium. Here, we propose to implement novel control elements for microbial consortia based on artificial cell–cell communication via fungal mating pheromones. Coupling to the desired output is mediated by pheromone‐responsive gene expression, thereby creating pheromone‐dependent communication channels between different subpopulations of the consortia. We highlight the benefits of artificial communication to specifically target individual subpopulations of microbial consortia and to control e.g. their metabolic profile or proliferation rate in a predefined and customized manner. Due to the steadily increasing knowledge of sexual cycles of industrially relevant fungi, a growing number of strains and species can be integrated into pheromone‐controlled sensor‐actor systems, exploiting their unique metabolic properties for microbial consortia approaches.     

Microflora from leaf debris is suitable for treatment of starch industry wastewater

Biological treatment of industrial waste is a widely practiced technique that generates comparatively less environmentally hazardous waste than other chemical treatment processes. Wet milling of maize generates huge amount of wastewater (5 m³/ton) of low pH with organic matter and nutrients. Anaerobic methanogenic and aerobic bacteria are mostly highly sensitive to low pH. The treatment of wastewater causes huge cost of chemical neutralization or hydraulic recirculation for maintaining neutral pH. In the present study, different microbial consortia isolated from cow dung, active sludge from an anaerobic reactor for treatment of industrial wastewater, and leaf debris from benthic soil were screened for tolerance against low pH and for potential of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal in order to find out an alternative microbial population for industrial water treatment at low pH. The most effective consortia found from leaf debris were further investigated for optimal operation. The microscopic analysis of leaf debris sludge showed abundance of Gram‐negative methanococci, which was found tolerant to low pH in plate culture method. On further investigation for COD removal from starch industry effluent, they were found to be most effective at pH 5 with highest COD removal rate of 70% and lowest biomass generation of 81%. Hence, it was concluded that the low pH‐tolerant methanogen bacteria, enriched from leaf debris sludge, is highly beneficial for anaerobic treatment of wastewater from several industries including corn starch industry by reducing cost of operation for neutralization to neutral pH and through reducing excess waste sludge production by the treatment system.     

功能菌群耦合黄铁矿浸出软锰矿的研究

【目的】将3种不同来源的环境样品混合后接种至含1%黄铁矿和1%软锰矿的培养基中进行富集培养,初步得到有一定浸矿功能的混合微生物菌群。【方法】菌群继续用于黄铁矿和低品位软锰矿共同浸出,设置未接种的体系作为对照。【结果】对浸出过程中菌群结构的变化、pH、锰浸出率和浸出残渣的成分进行分析,结果发现接种过微生物菌群的浸出体系在反应15 d后,锰浸出率达到92.48%,远高于未接菌对照组的40.34%;菌群中Thiomonas sp.所占比例从最初的2%上升到浸出结束时的93%。实验组的pH从最初的4.0下降到2.5;X射线衍射(XRD)分析发现,通过生物作用浸出的残渣中含有黄钾铁矾,说明生物代谢产生了大量的硫酸。【结论】证明微生物在两矿浸出过程中通过促进黄铁矿解离,维持体系低pH等作用加速反应的进行。结果为进一步研究微生物浸矿的作用机制和开发低品位锰矿的生物浸出工艺打下了基础。     

Culturable and metagenomic approaches of wheat bran and wheat straw phyllosphere’s highlight new lignocellulolytic microorganisms

The phyllosphere, defined as the aerial parts of plants, is one of the most prevalent microbial habitats on earth. The microorganisms present on the phyllosphere can have several interactions with the plant. The phyllosphere represents then a unique niche where microorganisms have evolved through time in that stressful environment and may have acquired the ability to degrade lignocellulosic plant cell walls in order to survive to oligotrophic conditions. The dynamic lignocellulolytic potential of two phyllospheric microbial consortia (wheat straw and wheat bran) has been studied. The microbial diversity rapidly changed between the native phyllospheres and the final degrading microbial consortia after 48 h of culture. Indeed, the initial microbial consortia was dominated by the Ralstonia (35·8%) and Micrococcus (75·2%) genera for the wheat bran and wheat straw whereas they were dominated by Candidatus phytoplasma (59%) and Acinetobacter (31·8%) in the final degrading microbial consortia respectively. Culturable experiments leading to the isolation of several new lignocellulolytic isolates (belonging to Moraxella and Atlantibacter genera) and metagenomic reconstruction of the microbial consortia highlighted the existence of an unpredicted microbial diversity involved in lignocellulose fractionation but also the existence of new pathways in known genera (presence of CE2 for Acinetobacter, several AAs for Pseudomonas and several GHs for Bacillus in different metagenomes-assembled genomes). The phyllosphere from agricultural co-products represents then a new niche as a lignocellulolytic degrading ecosystem.     

Coal methanogenesis: a review of the need of complex microbial consortia and culture conditions for the effective bioconversion of coal into methane

Microbial biodegradation of coal into low-molecular-weight compounds such as methane has been extensively researched in the last two decades because of the underlying environmental and industrial applications of this technique as compared to the chemical and physical methods of coal conversions. However, the irregular structure of coal and the need for complex microbial consortia under specific culture conditions do not make this biotransformation an ideal process for the development of anaerobic bioreactors. The most abundant species in a methanogenic culture are acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic methanogens which utilize acetate and H₂+CO₂, respectively. Medium- to low-rank coals such as high-volatile bituminous, sub-bituminous and lignite are more promising in this bioconversion as compared to semi- and meta-anthracite coals. While covering the details of the ideal culture conditions, this review enlightens the need of research setups to explore the complex microbial consortia and culture conditions for maximum methane production through coal methanogenesis.     

Construction of biofilms with defined internal architecture using dielectrophoresis and flocculation

A novel approach was developed for the construction of biofilms with defined internal architecture using AC electrokinetics and flocculation. Artificial structured microbial consortia (ASMC) consisting of localized layered microcolonies of different cell types were formed by sequentially attracting different cell types to high field regions near microelectrodes using dielectrophoresis. Stabilization of the microbial consortia on the electrode surface was achieved by crosslinking the cells using the flocculant polyethyleneimine (PEI). Consortia of Escherichia coli, Micrococcus luteus, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were made as model systems. Also, more natural consortia were made of the bacteria Pseudomonas putida, Clavibacter michiganense, and Methylobacterium mesophilum, which are found together in consortia during biodegradation of metal-cutting waste fluids.     

Maximizing microbial perchlorate degradation using a genetic algorithm: consortia optimization

Microorganisms in consortia perform many tasks more effectively than individual organisms and in addition grow more rapidly and in greater abundance. In this work, experimental datasets were assembled consisting of all possible selected combinations of perchlorate reducing strains of microorganisms and their perchlorate degradation rates were evaluated. A genetic algorithm (GA) methodology was successfully applied to define sets of microbial strains to achieve maximum rates of perchlorate degradation. Over the course of twenty generations of optimization using a GA, we saw a statistically significant 2.06 and 4.08-fold increase in average perchlorate degradation rates by consortia constructed using solely the perchlorate reducing bacteria (PRB) and by consortia consisting of PRB and accompanying organisms that did not degrade perchlorate, respectively. The comparison of kinetic rates constant in two types of microbial consortia additionally showed marked increases.