Genomics of Lactic Acid Bacteria for Glycerol Dissimilation.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are functional starter cultures in food and dairy industry and are also regarded as power houses for bioprocess and fermentation technology. Due to extensive applications in food and medical applications, intensive research and developmental activities are going on throughout the world to understand the genomic and metabolic aspects during the past few decades. These LAB strains have significant role in production of value added chemicals and fuels from lignocellulosic biomass and other by-product streams establishing a circular bioeconomy. In this context, we discuss the physiology and genetics of crude glycerol dissimilation in lactic acid bacteria, the value added chemicals produced from biodiesel-derived crude glycerol. The overview of metabolic engineering strategies to improve the cellular traits and future perspectives in constructing cellulolytic/hemicellulolytic LAB strains to establish a renewable and sustainable cost-effective biorefinery is discussed.

Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of oil palm front for the production of 2,3-butanediol.

The present study aims to develop a process for the production of 2,3-butanediol by Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) of Oil Palm Front (OPF) biomass. The study compares SSF with Separate Hydrolysis and Fermentation (SHF) of oil palm biomass and batch fermentation using glucose. The results showed that SSF is one of the most attractive techniques for the microbial production of 2,3-butanediol using lignocellulosic biomass. The enzymatic digestibility and fermentative efficiency of alkali pre-treated OPF biomass was checked and the role of various experimental parameters like enzyme loading and inoculum loading were optimized. SSF experiments could give 30.74 g/l of BDO in shake flask and 12.53 g/l in 500 ml bioreactor with a productivity of 0.32 and 0.13 g/l/h respectively.