A newly developed gene-editing platform could significantly advance the sustainable production of functional nutrients, offering nutraceutical manufacturers a more efficient and environmentally friendly route to high-value ingredients.
Researchers have engineered a precision editing system for Corynebacterium glutamicum S9114, a robust industrial strain traditionally used for glutamic acid production.
While widely deployed at commercial scale, the strain’s “non-model” status has historically limited the effectiveness of conventional genome-editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas9, constraining its use for broader metabolic engineering applications.
By integrating the CRISPR-Cpf1 system with a screened endogenous recombinase, CauR, the research team achieved gene knockout efficiencies of up to 77% in the S9114 strain.
This represents a substantial improvement in editing performance for industrial microbes and enables more precise redesign of metabolic pathways relevant to nutraceutical ingredient production.
Using the platform, researchers restructured the strain’s metabolic network to reduce carbon losses in competing pathways while enhancing precursor supply for N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) biosynthesis.
GlcNAc is a widely used functional ingredient in dietary supplements and joint health formulations, with growing demand across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
The engineered strain demonstrated high-efficiency GlcNAc production in a fermenter, achieving titres of 141.2 g/L and a production intensity of 1.88 g/L/h.
These results highlight the platform’s potential to support scalable, cost-effective fermentation processes aligned with sustainability goals.
For nutraceutical manufacturers and ingredient suppliers, the development will offer a route to more reliable and sustainable production of high-demand functional ingredients.
By enabling precise metabolic engineering in industrial, non-model microbial strains, the technology could reduce development timelines, improve production yields and lower manufacturing costs compared with traditional strain optimisation methods.
The ability to efficiently produce N-acetylglucosamine via fermentation also supports a shift away from resource-intensive or chemically derived processes, aligning with tightening environmental regulations and growing consumer demand for sustainably sourced ingredients across global markets.