Production of L-ornithine from sucrose and molasses by recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum

Sucrose and molasses are attractive raw materials for industrial fermentation. Although Corynebacterium glutamicum shows sucrose-utilizing activity, sucrose or molasses is only a fraction of carbon source used in the fermentation medium in most works. An engineered C. glutamicum strain was constructed for producing L-ornithine with sucrose or molasses as a sole carbon source by transferring Mannheimia succiniciproducens β-fructofuranosidase gene (sacC). The engineered strain, C. glutamicum ΔAPE6937R42 (pEC-sacC), produced 22.0 g/L of L-ornithine with sucrose as the sole carbon source, which is on par with that obtained by the parent strain C. glutamicum ΔAPE6937R42 with glucose as the sole carbon. The resulting strain C. glutamicum ΔAPE6937R42 (pEC-sacC) produced 27.0 g/L of L-ornithine with molasses as the sole carbon source, which is higher than that obtained by the parent strain C. glutamicum ΔAPE6937R42 with glucose as the sole carbon. This strategy can be applied for developing sucrose- or molasses-utilizing industrial strains.