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 in fed‑batch processes in order to identify limiting steps in the metabolism.
During the fed‑batch process, cell 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 (fluxome and metabolome) while providing different carbon sources. Limiting metabolic steps are identified based on the obtained data by conducting mathematical analyses (metabolic control analysis, MCA).
In cooperation with the Chair of Bioprocess Engineering at FAU Erlangen‑Nürnberg, targeted genetic adaptations will be based on these analyses to increase the microbial synthesis performance of 2'‑fucosyllactose with Escherichia coli.