(234c) Development of Robust Microorganisms Resistant to Chemical Inhibitors

One of the bottlenecks to efficiently convert biomass into biofuels and biochemicals requires development of robust microorganisms resistant to a wide range of chemical inhibitors such as alcohols (e.g., ethanol, butanol), weak organic acids (e.g., formic acid, acetic acid), furan derivatives (e.g., furfural, hydroxymethylfurfural), and phenolic compounds. Typically host microorganisms used for biomass conversion cannot perform well in the presence of mixtures of chemical inhibitors accumulated from biomass pretreatment and fermentation, resulting in lower product titers, yields and productivities. To tackle this problem, we present a novel approach to engineer host microorganisms that can exhibit tolerance to different chemical inhibitors through gene swapping and amplification technique. This technique allows the transfer of cellular phenotypes of interest from different donating microorganisms into a chosen host.