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Analysis of the microbial synthesis of 2‘‑fucosyllactose in fed‑batch processes

2’‑Fucosyllactose is an important human milk sugar that is applied to infant formula. The trisaccharide can be produced with genetically optimized microorganisms. For this purpose, the selective product synthesis must be well integrated into the cellular metabolism. This requires a quantitative understanding of the intracellular reactions in order to optimize the synthesis process.

This research project aims at the metabolic in‑vivo analysis of Escherichia coli production strains for synthesizing 2’‑fucosyllactose during fed‑batch process in order to identify limiting steps in the metabolism.

During the fed‑batch process, samples will be taken and subjected to rapid parallelized short-term analyses. The metabolic performance of the cells will be measured within a few minutes while providing different carbon sources (fluxome and metabolome). Limiting metabolic steps are identified based on the obtained data by conducting mathematical analyses (metabolic control analysis, MCA).

According to the identified bottlenecks genetic adaptations will be applied in collaboration with the working group of Biocatalysis & Fermentation to enhance the microbial synthesis of 2’‑fucosyllactose with Escherichia coli.

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This project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).