Enhanced production of nanofibrillated bacterial cellulose through regulation of gluconic acid metabolism.

Regulating gluconic acid metabolism in Komagataeibacter intermedius NEDO-01 triples nanofibrillated bacterial cellulose yield under optimized culture conditions.

• Why it matters: Efficient bacterial cellulose production is crucial for sustainable bioeconomy applications, but organic acid metabolism, especially gluconic acid, often inhibits cellulose synthesis, creating a bottleneck.
• What they did: The study employed pH control, continuous feeding, and a glucose dehydrogenase knockout mutant across various media, including agricultural by-products, to optimize NFBC production in stirred-tank reactors.
• The result: Suppressing gluconic acid accumulation and optimizing culture conditions increased NFBC yield up to 7.59 g/L, with consistent fiber quality, enabling scalable, cost-effective microbial cellulose manufacturing.