Within the long river of Chinese civilization, Baijiu stands as a brilliant cultural symbol, dominating a vast share of China's consumer market. Today, the annual production of the national Baijiu industry exceeds 30 million tons. But the industry harbors a hidden challenge, the metabolic dilemma of vinasse.
Vinasse contains complex lignin and cellulose, which are hard to degrade. Traditional treatments such as composting and animal feed cannot effectively handle them, leading to severe environmental pollution and resource waste.
We engineered a co-cultivable dual-bacteria system dedicated to vinasse recycling and succinate production.
Trichoderma reesei was modified to secrete laccase for lignin breakdown into short arenes,
while its natural cellulase degrades cellulose.
Pseudomonas putida uptakes these intermediates and channels them into its rewired TCA pathway,
enriching succinate for downstream applications.
Succinate can be used to manufacture products like biodegradable plastics, significantly enhancing the value derived from vinasse. Furthermore, our dual-bacteria system can be adapted to treat any agricultural waste that contains large amounts of lignin.
Our dual-bacteria system can be adapted to treat various agricultural wastes rich in lignin, supporting circular economy and aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goals. We aim to collaborate with global partners to expand the applications of synthetic biology in resource recycling.