A Metal-Dependant Formate Dehydrogenase Advances the Formate Bio-economy

In this manuscript a multi-subunit metal dependent FDH is functionally expressed in a strain of E. coli engineered to assimilate all energy and biomass from formate. The replacement of the previously described FDH with this new, faster FDH allows for improved growth parameters rivaling natural formatotrophs for the first time. This new, robsulty growing formatotrophic E. coli was engineered to produce mevalonate and achieved the highest reported titer for any bioproduct from formate in fed batch mode. Finally the authors explored bioproducion from electrochemically-derived and lignin-derived formate, demonstrating the first example of a bioproduct produced using liginin-derived formate as a feedstock.