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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Ind. Microbiol.
Sec. Fuels and Chemicals
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/finmi.2024.1473316
This article is part of the Research Topic Editors' Showcase: Fuels and Chemicals View all 6 articles

Identification of Yarrowia lipolytica as a platform for designed consortia that incorporate in situ nitrogen fixation to enable ammonia-free bioconversion

Provisionally accepted
Kyle R. Pomraning Kyle R. Pomraning 1*Shuang Deng Shuang Deng 1Rylan D. Duong Rylan D. Duong 1Jeffrey Czajka Jeffrey Czajka 1Pavlo Bohutskyi Pavlo Bohutskyi 1,2
  • 1 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE), Richland, United States
  • 2 Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Bioconversion processes require nitrogen for growth and production of intracellular enzymes to produce biofuels and bioproducts. Typically, this is supplied as reduced nitrogen in the form of ammonia, which is produced offsite from N2 and H2 via the Haber-Bosch process. While this has revolutionized industries dependent on fixed nitrogen (e.g., modern agriculture), it is highly energy-intensive and its reliance on natural gas combustion results in substantial global CO2 emissions. Here we investigated the feasibility of in situ biological nitrogen fixation from N2 gas as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas impacts of aerobic bioconversion processes. We developed an efficient and cost-effective method to screen fungal bioconversion hosts for compatibility with the free-living diazotrophic bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii under nitrogen fixing conditions. Our screening revealed that the genus Yarrowia is particularly enriched during co-culture experiments. Follow-up experiments identified four Y. lipolytica strains (NRRL Y-11853, NRRL Y-7208, NRRL Y-7317, and NRRL YB-618) capable of growth in co-culture with A. vinelandii. These strains utilize ammonium secreted during diazotrophic fixation of N2, which is provided as a component of the air input stream during aerobic fermentation. This demonstrates the feasibly of in situ biological nitrogen fixation to support heterotrophic fermentation processes for production of fuels and chemicals.

    Keywords: Nitrogen Fixation, diazotroph, yarrowia lipolytica, Azotobacter vinelandii, bioconversion, Oleaginous, co-culture, Community screening

    Received: 30 Jul 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Pomraning, Deng, Duong, Czajka and Bohutskyi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kyle R. Pomraning, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE), Richland, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.