Engineered E. Coli Convert Kimchi Radish Waste Into Biodegradable Bioplastic

Engineered E. coli convert kimchi radish waste into biodegradable bioplastic

Every year, thousands of tons of radish by-products generated during kimchi production are discarded despite containing valuable carbon and nutrient resources. Researchers at the World Institute of Kimchi (WiKim) have developed a genome-scale model-guided microbial engineering strategy that enables these agricultural by-products to be converted into biodegradable bioplastics while rationally engineering microbial strains specifically for radish …

Genome-scale Model-guided Microbial Engineering Converts Agricultural Waste into Biodegradable Bioplastics

The study introduces an integrated engineering framework that combines transcriptomic analysis with a transcriptome-constrained genome-scale metabolic model (GEM) to identify metabolic engineering targets for enhanced bioplastic production. Rather than relying on conventional trial-and-error strain engineering, the approach predicts genetic modifications that redirect metabolic flux toward product biosynthesis, providing a new strategy for agric…