Routes to industrial scalability to maximise investment in engineering biology in the UK-A bioplastics small and medium-sized enterprise perspective.

Focus on engineering biology is at the forefront of the UK government's objectives, being one of their five critical technologies (the others being quantum technologies, artifical intelligence, semiconductors, and future telecommunications), with a recent announcement of £2 billion to be invested into the field over the next 10 years. With such attention being given to engineering biology within the UK, it is critical to envisage realistic downstream channels (i.e.

Bioconversion of lignin-derived aromatics into the building block pyridine 2,4-dicarboxylic acid by engineering recombinant Pseudomonas putida strains.

2,4 pyridine dicarboxylic acid (2,4 PDCA) is an analogue of terephthalate, and hence a target chemical in the field of bio-based plastics. Here, Pseudomonas putida KT2440 strains were engineered to efficiently drive the metabolism of lignin-derived monoaromatics towards 2,4 PDCA in a resting cells-based bioprocess that alleviates growth-coupled limitations and allows biocatalysts recycling. Native β-ketoadipate pathway was blocked by replacing protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase by the exogenous LigAB extradiol dioxygenase.

Metabolic engineering of Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 for production of pyridine-dicarboxylic acids from lignin.

Genetic modification of Rhodococcus jostii RHA1 was carried out in order to optimise the production of pyridine-2,4-dicarboxylic acid and pyridine-2,5-dicarboxylic acid bioproducts from lignin or lignocellulose breakdown, via insertion of either the Sphingobium SYK-6 ligAB genes or Paenibacillus praA gene respectively. Insertion of inducible plasmid pTipQC2 expression vector containing either ligAB or praA genes into a ΔpcaHG R. jostii RHA1 gene deletion strain gave 2-threefold higher titres of PDCA production from lignocellulose (200-287 mg/L), compared to plasmid expression in wild-type R.

Comammox Nitrospira are abundant ammonia oxidizers in diverse groundwater-fed rapid sand filter communities.

The recent discovery of completely nitrifying Nitrospira demands a re-examination of nitrifying environments to evaluate their contribution to nitrogen cycling. To approach this challenge, tools are needed to detect and quantify comammox Nitrospira. We present primers for the simultaneous quantification and diversity assessement of both comammox Nitrospira clades.