An efficient succinic acid production process in a metabolically engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum strain

Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for methanol metabolism

Methanol is already an important carbon feedstock in the chemical industry, but it has found only limited application in biotechnological production processes. This can be mostly attributed to the inability of most microbial platform organisms to utilize methanol as a carbon and energy source. With the aim to turn methanol into a suitable feedstock for microbial production processes, we engineered the industrially important but nonmethylotrophic bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum toward the utilization of methanol as an auxiliary carbon source in a sugar-based medium. Initial oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde was achieved by heterologous expression of a methanol dehydrogenase from Bacillus methanolicus, whereas assimilation of formaldehyde was realized by implementing the two key enzymes of the ribulose monophosphate pathway of Bacillus subtilis: 3-hexulose-6-phosphate synthase and 6-phospho-3-hexuloisomerase. The recombinant C. glutamicum strain showed an average methanol consumption rate of 1.7 ± 0.3 mM/h (mean ± standard deviation) in a glucose-methanol medium, and the culture grew to a higher cell density than in medium without methanol. In addition, [(13)C]methanol-labeling experiments revealed labeling fractions of 3 to 10% in the m + 1 mass isotopomers of various intracellular metabolites. In the background of a C. glutamicum Δald ΔadhE mutant being strongly impaired in its ability to oxidize formaldehyde to CO2, the m + 1 labeling of these intermediates was increased (8 to 25%), pointing toward higher formaldehyde assimilation capabilities of this strain. The engineered C. glutamicum strains represent a promising starting point for the development of sugar-based biotechnological production processes using methanol as an auxiliary substrate.

Biorefineries for the production of top building block chemicals and their derivatives

Due to the growing concerns on the climate change and sustainability on petrochemical resources, DOE selected and announced the bio-based top 12 building blocks and discussed the needs for developing biorefinery technologies to replace the current petroleum based industry in 2004. Over the last 10 years after its announcement, many studies have been performed for the development of efficient technologies for the bio-based production of these chemicals and derivatives. Now, ten chemicals among these top 12 chemicals, excluding the l-aspartic acid and 3-hydroxybutyrolactone, have already been commercialized or are close to commercialization. In this paper, we review the current status of biorefinery development for the production of these platform chemicals and their derivatives. In addition, current technological advances on industrial strain development for the production of platform chemicals using micro-organisms will be covered in detail with case studies on succinic acid and 3-hydroxypropionic acid as examples.

A chromosomally encoded T7 RNA polymerase-dependent gene expression system for Corynebacterium glutamicum: construction and comparative evaluation at the single-cell level

Corynebacterium glutamicum has become a favourite model organism in white biotechnology. Nevertheless, only few systems for the regulatable (over)expression of homologous and heterologous genes are currently available, all of which are based on the endogenous RNA polymerase. In this study, we developed an isopropyl-β-d-1-thiogalactopyranosid (IPTG)-inducible T7 expression system in the prophage-free strain C. glutamicum MB001. For this purpose, part of the DE3 region of Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) including the T7 RNA polymerase gene 1 under control of the lacUV5 promoter was integrated into the chromosome, resulting in strain MB001(DE3). Furthermore, the expression vector pMKEx2 was constructed allowing cloning of target genes under the control of the T7lac promoter. The properties of the system were evaluated using eyfp as heterologous target gene. Without induction, the system was tightly repressed, resulting in a very low specific eYFP fluorescence (= fluorescence per cell density). After maximal induction with IPTG, the specific fluorescence increased 450-fold compared with the uninduced state and was about 3.5 times higher than in control strains expressing eyfp under control of the IPTG-induced tac promoter with the endogenous RNA polymerase. Flow cytometry revealed that T7-based eyfp expression resulted in a highly uniform population, with 99% of all cells showing high fluorescence. Besides eyfp, the functionality of the corynebacterial T7 expression system was also successfully demonstrated by overexpression of the C. glutamicum pyk gene for pyruvate kinase, which led to an increase of the specific activity from 2.6 to 135 U mg⁻¹. It thus presents an efficient new tool for protein overproduction, metabolic engineering and synthetic biology approaches with C. glutamicum.

Production of 2-ketoisocaproate with Corynebacterium glutamicum strains devoid of plasmids and heterologous genes

2-Ketoisocaproate (KIC), the last intermediate in l-leucine biosynthesis, has various medical and industrial applications. After deletion of the ilvE gene for transaminase B in l-leucine production strains of Corynebacterium glutamicum, KIC became the major product, however, the strains were auxotrophic for l-isoleucine. To avoid auxotrophy, reduction of IlvE activity by exchanging the ATG start codon of ilvE by GTG was tested instead of an ilvE deletion. The resulting strains were indeed able to grow in glucose minimal medium without amino acid supplementation, but at the cost of lowered growth rates and KIC production parameters. The best production performance was obtained with strain MV-KICF1, which carried besides the ilvE start codon exchange three copies of a gene for a feedback-resistant 2-isopropylmalate synthase, one copy of a gene for a feedback-resistant acetohydroxyacid synthase and deletions of ltbR and iolR encoding transcriptional regulators. In the presence of 1 mM l-isoleucine, MV-KICF1 accumulated 47 mM KIC (6.1 g l⁻¹) with a yield of 0.20 mol/mol glucose and a volumetric productivity of 1.41 mmol KIC l⁻¹ h⁻¹. Since MV-KICF1 is plasmid free and lacks heterologous genes, it is an interesting strain for industrial application and as platform for the production of KIC-derived compounds, such as 3-methyl-1-butanol.

Rho and RNase play a central role in FMN riboswitch regulation in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Riboswitches are RNA elements that regulate gene expression in response to their ligand. Although these regulations are thought to be performed without any aid of other factors, recent studies suggested the participation of protein factors such as transcriptional termination factor Rho and RNase in some riboswitch regulations. However, to what extent these protein factors contribute to the regulation was unclear. Here, we studied the regulatory mechanism of the flavin mononucleotide (FMN) riboswitch of Corynebacterium glutamicum which controls the expression of downstream ribM gene. Our results showed that this riboswitch downregulates both ribM mRNA and RibM protein levels in FMN-rich cells. Analysis of mRNA stability and chromatin immunoprecipitation–real-time PCR analysis targeting RNA polymerase suggested the involvement of the mRNA degradation and premature transcriptional termination in this regulation, respectively. Simultaneous disruption of RNase E/G and Rho function completely abolished the regulation at the mRNA level. Also, the regulation at the protein level was largely diminished. However, some FMN-dependent regulation at the protein level remained, suggesting the presence of other minor regulatory mechanisms. Altogether, we demonstrated for the first time that two protein factors, Rho and RNase E/G, play a central role in the riboswitch-mediated gene expression control.

The crystal structures of apo and cAMP-bound GlxR from Corynebacterium glutamicum reveal structural and dynamic changes upon cAMP binding in CRP/FNR family transcription factors

The cyclic AMP-dependent transcriptional regulator GlxR from Corynebacterium glutamicum is a member of the super-family of CRP/FNR (cyclic AMP receptor protein/fumarate and nitrate reduction regulator) transcriptional regulators that play central roles in bacterial metabolic regulatory networks. In C. glutamicum, which is widely used for the industrial production of amino acids and serves as a non-pathogenic model organism for members of the Corynebacteriales including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the GlxR homodimer controls the transcription of a large number of genes involved in carbon metabolism. GlxR therefore represents a key target for understanding the regulation and coordination of C. glutamicum metabolism. Here we investigate cylic AMP and DNA binding of GlxR from C. glutamicum and describe the crystal structures of apo GlxR determined at a resolution of 2.5 Å, and two crystal forms of holo GlxR at resolutions of 2.38 and 1.82 Å, respectively. The detailed structural analysis and comparison of GlxR with CRP reveals that the protein undergoes a distinctive conformational change upon cyclic AMP binding leading to a dimer structure more compatible to DNA-binding. As the two binding sites in the GlxR homodimer are structurally identical dynamic changes upon binding of the first ligand are responsible for the allosteric behavior. The results presented here show how dynamic and structural changes in GlxR lead to optimization of orientation and distance of its two DNA-binding helices for optimal DNA recognition.

Economically enhanced succinic acid fermentation from cassava bagasse hydrolysate using Corynebacterium glutamicum immobilized in porous polyurethane filler

An immobilized fermentation system, using cassava bagasse hydrolysate (CBH) and mixed alkalis, was developed to achieve economical succinic acid production by Corynebacterium glutamicum. The C. glutamicum strains were immobilized in porous polyurethane filler (PPF). CBH was used efficiently as a carbon source instead of more expensive glucose. Moreover, as a novel method for regulating pH, the easily decomposing NaHCO3 was replaced by mixed alkalis (NaOH and Mg(OH)2) for succinic acid production by C. glutamicum. Using CBH and mixed alkalis in the immobilized batch fermentation system, succinic acid productivity of 0.42gL(-1)h(-1) was obtained from 35gL(-1) glucose of CBH, which is similar to that obtained with conventional free-cell fermentation with glucose and NaHCO3. In repeated batch fermentation, an average of 22.5gL(-1) succinic acid could be obtained from each batch, which demonstrated the enhanced stability of the immobilized C. glutamicum cells.

Effects of eliminating pyruvate node pathways and of coexpression of heterogeneous carboxylation enzymes on succinate production by Enterobacter aerogenes

Lowering the pH in bacterium-based succinate fermentation is considered a feasible approach to reduce total production costs. Newly isolated Enterobacter aerogenes strain AJ110637, a rapid carbon source assimilator under weakly acidic (pH 5.0) conditions, was selected as a platform for succinate production. Our previous work showed that the ΔadhE/PCK strain, developed from AJ110637 with inactivated ethanol dehydrogenase and introduced Actinobacillus succinogenes phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PCK), generated succinate as a major product of anaerobic mixed-acid fermentation from glucose under weakly acidic conditions (pH <6.2). To further improve the production of succinate by the ΔadhE/PCK strain, metabolically engineered strains were designed based on the elimination of pathways that produced undesirable products and the introduction of two carboxylation pathways from phosphoenolpyruvate and pyruvate to oxaloacetate. The highest production of succinate was observed with strain ES04/PCK+PYC, which had inactivated ethanol, lactate, acetate, and 2,3-butanediol pathways and coexpressed PCK and Corynebacterium glutamicum pyruvate carboxylase (PYC). This strain produced succinate from glucose with over 70% yield (gram per gram) without any measurable formation of ethanol, lactate, or 2,3-butanediol under weakly acidic conditions. The impact of lowering the pH from 7.0 to 5.5 on succinate production in this strain was evaluated under pH-controlled batch culture conditions and showed that the lower pH decreased the succinate titer but increased its yield. These findings can be applied to identify additional engineering targets to increase succinate production.

Engineering Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii for enhanced propionic acid fermentation: effects of overexpressing propionyl-CoA:Succinate CoA transferase

Propionibacterium freudenreichii subsp. shermanii naturally forms propionic acid as the main fermentation product with acetate and succinate as two major by-products. In this study, overexpressing the native propionyl-CoA:succinate CoA transferase (CoAT) in P. shermanii was investigated to evaluate its effects on propionic acid fermentation with glucose, glycerol, and their mixtures as carbon source. In general, the mutant produced more propionic acid, with up to 10% increase in yield (0.62 vs. 0.56g/g) and 46% increase in productivity (0.41 vs. 0.28g/Lh), depending on the fermentation conditions. The mutant also produced less acetate and succinate, with the ratios of propionate to acetate (P/A) and succinate (P/S) in the final product increased 50% and 23%, respectively, in the co-fermentation of glucose/glycerol. Metabolic flux analysis elucidated that CoAT overexpression diverted more carbon fluxes toward propionic acid, resulting in higher propionic acid purity and a preference for glycerol over glucose as carbon source.

Increasing available NADH supply during succinic acid production by Corynebacterium glutamicum

A critical factor in the biotechnological production of succinic acid with Corynebacterium glutamicum is the sufficient supply of NADH. It is conceivable that cofactor availability and the proportion of cofactor in the active form may play an important role in dictating the succinic acid yield. PntAB genes from Escherichia coli can directly catalyze the reversible hydride transfer and adjust the dynamic balance between NADP(H) and NAD(H). Hence, we studied the physiological effect of coenzyme systems by expressing the membrane-bound transhydrogenase pntAB genes. We have shown experimentally that the pntAB genes could function as an alternative source of NADH. In an anaerobic fermentation with C. glutamicum NC-3-pntAB, a 16% higher succinic acid yield and a 57% higher production from glucose were obtained by pntAB expression. Moreover, the formation of by-products was significantly decreased. The concomitant increase in the consumption of intracellular NADPH from 0.6 to 1.2 mmol/g CDW and the increased NADH/NAD(+) ratio resulted from introduction of pntAB, suggesting that the membrane-bound transhydrogenase converted excess NADPH to NADH for succinic acid production. Finally, we explored whether the transhydrogenase had different effects on the succinic acid formation on different carbon sources. The succinic acid yield was increased in the presence of pntAB by 16% on glucose, 7% on sucrose, and without large influence on fructose and xylose. The results of this study demonstrated that the effectiveness of cofactor manipulation could be a promising strategy applied in metabolic engineering.

Enhanced succinic acid production and magnesium utilization by overexpression of magnesium transporter mgtA in Escherichia coli mutant

In this study, a novel engineered Escherichia coli strain KMG111 was constructed by overexpression of mgtA in E. coli mutant DC1515. By adopting KMG111, nearly a concentration of succinic acid (32.41gL(-1)) with a yield of 0.81gg(-1) glucose, could be obtained in a batch fermentation by using the low-cost mixture of Mg(OH)2 and NH3·H2O to replace MgCO3 as the alkaline neutralizer. Moreover, the effect of the inhibitory compounds in lignocellulosic hydrolyzates on cell growth and succinic acid production could be relieved. In a 3-L bioreactor, the overall productivity and yield of succinic acid in the whole anaerobic stage were 2.15gL(-1)h(-1) and 0.86gg(-1) total sugar, respectively. This study was the first to report decreased alkaline neutralizer cost via genetic manipulation for succinic acid production, which contributed to the industrialization of this microbial synthesis process.

Detoxification of furfural in Corynebacterium glutamicum under aerobic and anaerobic conditions

The toxic fermentation inhibitors in lignocellulosic hydrolysates raise serious problems for the microbial production of fuels and chemicals. Furfural is considered to be one of the most toxic compounds among these inhibitors. Here, we describe the detoxification of furfural in Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC13032 under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Under aerobic culture conditions, furfuryl alcohol and 2-furoic acid were produced as detoxification products of furfural. The ratio of the products varied depending on the initial furfural concentration. Neither furfuryl alcohol nor 2-furoic acid showed any toxic effect on cell growth, and both compounds were determined to be the end products of furfural degradation. Interestingly, unlike under aerobic conditions, most of the furfural was converted to furfuryl alcohol under anaerobic conditions, without affecting the glucose consumption rate. Both the NADH/NAD(+) and NADPH/NADP(+) ratio decreased in the accordance with furfural concentration under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. These results indicate the presence of a single or multiple endogenous enzymes with broad and high affinity for furfural and co-factors in C. glutamicum ATCC13032.

Lactate production as representative of the fermentation potential of Corynebacterium glutamicum 2262 in a one-step process

The fermentative properties of thermo-sensitive strain Corynebacterium glutamicum 2262 were investigated in processes coupling aerobic cell growth and the anaerobic fermentation phase. In particular, the influence of two modes of fermentation on the production of lactate, the fermentation product model, was studied. In both processes, lactate was produced in significant amount, 27 g/L in batch culture, and up to 55.8 g/L in fed-batch culture, but the specific production rate in the fed-batch culture was four times lower than that in the batch culture. Compared to other investigated fermentation processes, our strategy resulted in the highest yield of lactic acid from biomass. Lactate production by C. glutamicum 2262 thus revealed the capability of the strain to produce various fermentation products from pyruvate.

Genome-wide analysis of the role of global transcriptional regulator GntR1 in Corynebacterium glutamicum

The transcriptional regulator GntR1 downregulates the genes for gluconate catabolism and pentose phosphate pathway in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Gluconate lowers the DNA binding affinity of GntR1, which is probably the mechanism of gluconate-dependent induction of these genes. In addition, GntR1 positively regulates ptsG, a gene encoding a major glucose transporter, and pck, a gene encoding phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. Here, we searched for the new target of GntR1 on a genome-wide scale by chromatin immunoprecipitation in conjunction with microarray (ChIP-chip) analysis. This analysis identified 56 in vivo GntR1 binding sites, of which 7 sites were previously reported. The newly identified GntR1 sites include the upstream regions of carbon metabolism genes such as pyk, maeB, gapB, and icd, encoding pyruvate kinase, malic enzyme, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase B, and isocitrate dehydrogenase, respectively. Binding of GntR1 to the promoter region of these genes was confirmed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay. The activity of the icd, gapB, and maeB promoters was reduced by the mutation at the GntR1 binding site, in contrast to the pyk promoter activity, which was increased, indicating that GntR1 is a transcriptional activator of icd, gapB, and maeB and is a repressor of pyk. Thus, it is likely that GntR1 stimulates glucose uptake by inducing the phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP):carbohydrate phosphotransferase system (PTS) gene while repressing pyk to increase PEP availability in the absence of gluconate. Repression of zwf and gnd may reduce the NADPH supply, which may be compensated by the induction of maeB and icd. Upregulation of icd, gapB, and maeB and downregulation of pyk by GntR1 probably support gluconeogenesis.

The production of succinic acid by yeast Yarrowia lipolytica through a two-step process

The production of α-ketoglutaric acid by yeast Yarrowia lipolytica VKMY-2412 from ethanol and its subsequent chemical conversion to succinic acid (SA) were investigated. A highly effective and environmentally friendly process of α-ketoglutaric acid production was developed using a special pH-controlling strategy, in which the titration of the culture broth with KOH in the acid-formation phase was minimal, that allowed accumulation of only low amounts of inorganic wastes in the course of SA recovery. The culture broth filtrate containing α-ketoglutaric acid (88.7 g l(-1)) was directly employed for SA production; the amount of SA produced comprised 71.7 g l(-1) with the yield of 70% from ethanol consumed. SA was isolated from the culture broth filtrate in a crystalline form with the purity of 100%. The yield of isolated SA was as high as 72% of its amount in the culture broth filtrate. The antimicrobial and nematocidic effects of SA of microbial origin on pathogenic organisms that cause human and plant diseases were revealed for the first time.

Study of the role of anaerobic metabolism in succinate production by Enterobacter aerogenes

Succinate is a core biochemical building block; optimizing succinate production from biomass by microbial fermentation is a focus of basic and applied biotechnology research. Lowering pH in anaerobic succinate fermentation culture is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly approach to reducing the use of sub-raw materials such as alkali, which are needed for neutralization. To evaluate the potential of bacteria-based succinate fermentation under weak acidic (pH <6.2) and anaerobic conditions, we characterized the anaerobic metabolism of Enterobacter aerogenes AJ110637, which rapidly assimilates glucose at pH 5.0. Based on the profile of anaerobic products, we constructed single-gene knockout mutants to eliminate the main anaerobic metabolic pathways involved in NADH re-oxidation. These single-gene knockout studies showed that the ethanol synthesis pathway serves as the dominant NADH re-oxidation pathway in this organism. To generate a metabolically engineered strain for succinate production, we eliminated ethanol formation and introduced a heterogeneous carboxylation enzyme, yielding E. aerogenes strain ΔadhE/PCK. The strain produced succinate from glucose with a 60.5% yield (grams of succinate produced per gram of glucose consumed) at pH <6.2 and anaerobic conditions. Thus, we showed the potential of bacteria-based succinate fermentation under weak acidic conditions.

Investigation of ptsG gene in response to xylose utilization in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Corynebacterium glutamicum strains NC-2 were able to grow on xylose as sole carbon sources in our previous work. Nevertheless, it exhibited the major shortcoming that the xylose consumption was repressed in the presence of glucose. So far, regarding C. glutamicum, there are a number of reports on ptsG gene, the glucose-specific transporter, involved in glucose metabolism. Recently, we found ptsG had influence on xylose utilization and investigated the ptsG gene in response to xylose utilization in C. glutamicum with the aim to improve xylose consumption and simultaneously utilized glucose and xylose. The ptsG-deficient mutant could grow on xylose, while exhibiting noticeably reduced growth on xylose as sole carbon source. A mutant deficient in ptsH, a general PTS gene, exhibited a similar phenomenon. When complementing ptsG gene, the mutant ΔptsG-ptsG restored the ability to grow on xylose similarly to NC-2. These indicate that ptsG gene is not only essential for metabolism on glucose but also important in xylose utilization. A ptsG-overexpressing recombinant strain could not accelerate glucose or xylose metabolism. When strains were aerobically cultured in a sugar mixture of glucose and xylose, glucose and xylose could not be utilized simultaneously. Interestingly, the ΔptsG strain could co-utilize glucose and xylose under oxygen-deprived conditions, though the consumption rate of glucose and xylose dramatically declined. It was the first report of ptsG gene in response to xylose utilization in C. glutamicum.

Engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for growth and L-lysine and lycopene production from N-acetyl-glucosamine

Sustainable supply of feedstock has become a key issue in process development in microbial biotechnology. The workhorse of industrial amino acid production Corynebacterium glutamicum has been engineered towards utilization of alternative carbon sources. Utilization of the chitin-derived aminosugar N-acetyl-glucosamine (GlcNAc) for both cultivation and production with C. glutamicum has hitherto not been investigated. Albeit this organism harbors the enzymes N-acetylglucosamine-6-phosphatedeacetylase and glucosamine-6P deaminase of GlcNAc metabolism (encoded by nagA and nagB, respectively) growth of C. glutamicum with GlcNAc as substrate was not observed. This was attributed to the lack of a functional system for GlcNAc uptake. Of the 17 type strains of the genus Corynebacterium tested here for their ability to grow with GlcNAc, only Corynebacterium glycinophilum DSM45794 was able to utilize this substrate. Complementation studies with a GlcNAc-uptake deficient Escherichia coli strain revealed that C. glycinophilum possesses a nagE-encoded EII permease for GlcNAc uptake. Heterologous expression of the C. glycinophilum nagE in C. glutamicum indeed enabled uptake of GlcNAc. For efficient GlcNac utilization in C. glutamicum, improved expression of nagE with concurrent overexpression of the endogenous nagA and nagB genes was found to be necessary. Based on this strategy, C. glutamicum strains for the efficient production of the amino acid L-lysine as well as the carotenoid lycopene from GlcNAc as sole substrate were constructed.

Carbon flux analysis by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance to determine the effect of CO2 on anaerobic succinate production by Corynebacterium glutamicum

Wild-type Corynebacterium glutamicum produces a mixture of lactic, succinic, and acetic acids from glucose under oxygen deprivation. We investigated the effect of CO2 on the production of organic acids in a two-stage process: cells were grown aerobically in glucose, and subsequently, organic acid production by nongrowing cells was studied under anaerobic conditions. The presence of CO2 caused up to a 3-fold increase in the succinate yield (1 mol per mol of glucose) and about 2-fold increase in acetate, both at the expense of l-lactate production; moreover, dihydroxyacetone formation was abolished. The redistribution of carbon fluxes in response to CO2 was estimated by using (13)C-labeled glucose and (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis of the labeling patterns in end products. The flux analysis showed that 97% of succinate was produced via the reductive part of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, with the low activity of the oxidative branch being sufficient to provide the reducing equivalents needed for the redox balance. The flux via the pentose phosphate pathway was low (~5%) regardless of the presence or absence of CO2. Moreover, there was significant channeling of carbon to storage compounds (glycogen and trehalose) and concomitant catabolism of these reserves. The intracellular and extracellular pools of lactate and succinate were measured by in vivo NMR, and the stoichiometry (H(+):organic acid) of the respective exporters was calculated. This study shows that it is feasible to take advantage of natural cellular regulation mechanisms to obtain high yields of succinate with C. glutamicum without genetic manipulation.

The physiological role of riboflavin transporter and involvement of FMN-riboswitch in its gene expression in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Riboflavin is a precursor of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), which work as cofactors of numerous enzymes. Understanding the supply system of these cofactors in bacteria, particularly those used for industrial production of value added chemicals, is important given the pivotal role the cofactors play in substrate metabolism. In this work, we examined the effect of disruption of riboflavin utilization genes on cell growth, cytoplasmic flavin levels, and expression of riboflavin transporter in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Disruption of the ribA gene that encodes bifunctional GTP cyclohydrolase II/3,4-dihydroxy-2-butanone 4-phosphate synthase in C. glutamicum suppressed growth in the absence of supplemental riboflavin. The growth was fully recovered upon supplementation with 1 μM riboflavin, albeit at reduced intracellular concentrations of FMN and FAD during the log phase. Concomitant disruption of the ribA and ribM gene that encodes a riboflavin transporter exacerbated supplemental riboflavin requirement from 1 μM to 50 μM. RibM expression in FMN-rich cells was about 100-fold lower than that in FMN-limited cells. Mutations in putative FMN-riboswitch present immediately upstream of the ribM gene abolished the FMN response. This 5'UTR sequence of ribM constitutes a functional FMN-riboswitch in C. glutamicum.

The peculiarities of succinic acid production from rapeseed oil by Yarrowia lipolytica yeast

The process of succinic acid (SA) production represents the combination of microbial synthesis of α-ketoglutaric acid from rapeseed oil by yeast Yarrowia lipolytica VKM Y-2412 and subsequent decarboxylation of α-ketoglutaric acid by hydrogen peroxide to SA that leads to the production of 69.0 g l(-1) of SA and 1.36 g l(-1) of acetic acid. SA was isolated from the culture broth filtrate in a crystalline form. The SA recovery from the culture filtrate has certain difficulties due to the presence of residual triglycerides of rapeseed oil. The effect of different methods of the culture filtrate treatment and various sorption materials on the coagulation of triglycerides was studied, and as a result, the precipitation of residual triglycerides by acetone was chosen. The subsequent isolation procedures involved the decomposition of H2O2 in the filtrate followed by filtrate bleaching and acidification with a mineral acid, evaporation of filtrate, and SA extraction with ethanol from the residue. The purity of crystalline SA isolated from the culture broth filtrate achieved 97.6-100 %. The product yield varied from 62.6 to 71.6 % depending on the acidity of the supernatant.

Succinic acid production from sucrose by Actinobacillus succinogenes NJ113

In this study, sucrose, a reproducible disaccharide extracted from plants, was used as the carbon source for the production of succinic acid by Actinobacillus succinogenes NJ113. During serum bottle fermentation, the succinic acid concentration reached 57.1g/L with a yield of 71.5%. Further analysis of the sucrose utilization pathways revealed that sucrose was transported and utilized via a sucrose phosphotransferase system, sucrose-6-phosphate hydrolase, and a fructose PTS. Compared to glucose utilization in single pathway, more pathways of A. succinogenes NJ113 are dependent on sucrose utilization. By changing the control strategy in a fed-batch culture to alleviate sucrose inhibition, 60.5g/L of succinic acid was accumulated with a yield of 82.9%, and the productivity increased by 35.2%, reaching 2.16g/L/h. Thus utilization of sucrose has considerable potential economics and environmental meaning.

Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to improve succinic acid production based on metabolic profiling

We performed metabolic engineering on the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae for enhanced production of succinic acid. Aerobic succinic acid production in S. cerevisiae was achieved by disrupting the SDH1 and SDH2 genes, which encode the catalytic subunits of succinic acid dehydrogenase. Increased succinic acid production was achieved by eliminating the ethanol biosynthesis pathways. Metabolic profiling analysis revealed that succinic acid accumulated intracellularly following disruption of the SDH1 and SDH2 genes, which suggests that enhancing the export of intracellular succinic acid outside of cells increases succinic acid production in S. cerevisiae. The mae1 gene encoding the Schizosaccharomyces pombe malic acid transporter was introduced into S. cerevisiae, and as a result, succinic acid production was successfully improved. Metabolic profiling analysis is useful in producing chemicals for metabolic engineering of microorganisms.

Aerobic production of succinate from arabinose by metabolically engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum

Arabinose is considered as an ideal feedstock for the microbial production of value-added chemicals due to its abundance in hemicellulosic wastes. In this study, the araBAD operon from Escherichia coli was introduced into succinate-producing Corynebacterium glutamicum, which enabled aerobic production of succinate using arabinose as sole carbon source. The engineered strain ZX1 (pXaraBAD, pEacsAgltA) produced 74.4 mM succinate with a yield of 0.58 mol (mol arabinose)(-1), which represented 69.9% of the theoretically maximal yield. Moreover, this strain produced 110.2 mM succinate using combined substrates of glucose and arabinose. To date, this is the highest succinate production under aerobic conditions in minimal medium.

Direct production of organic acids from starch by cell surface-engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum in anaerobic conditions

We produced organic acids, including lactate and succinate, directly from soluble starch under anaerobic conditions using high cell-density cultures of Corynebacterium glutamicum displaying α-amylase (AmyA) from Streptococcus bovis 148 on the cell surface. Notably, reactions performed under anaerobic conditions at 35 and 40°C, which are higher than the optimal growth temperature of 30°C, showed 32% and 19%, respectively, higher productivity of the organic acids lactate, succinate, and acetate compared to that at 30°C. However, α-amylase was not stably anchored and released into the medium from the cell surface during reactions at these higher temperatures, as demonstrated by the 61% and 85% decreases in activity, respectively, from baseline, compared to the only 8% decrease at 30°C. The AmyA-displaying C. glutamicum cells retained their starch-degrading capacity during five 10 h reaction cycles at 30°C, producing 107.8 g/l of total organic acids, including 88.9 g/l lactate and 14.0 g/l succinate. The applicability of cell surface-engineering technology for the production of organic acids from biomass by high cell-density cultures of C. glutamicum under anaerobic conditions was demonstrated.

Fermentative succinate production: an emerging technology to replace the traditional petrochemical processes

Succinate is a valuable platform chemical for multiple applications. Confronted with the exhaustion of fossil energy resources, fermentative succinate production from renewable biomass to replace the traditional petrochemical process is receiving an increasing amount of attention. During the past few years, the succinate-producing process using microbial fermentation has been made commercially available by the joint efforts of researchers in different fields. In this review, recent attempts and experiences devoted to reduce the production cost of biobased succinate are summarized, including strain improvement, fermentation engineering, and downstream processing. The key limitations and challenges faced in current microbial production systems are also proposed.

Development of fatty acid-producing Corynebacterium glutamicum strains

To date, no information has been made available on the genetic traits that lead to increased carbon flow into the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway of Corynebacterium glutamicum. To develop basic technologies for engineering, we employed an approach that begins by isolating a fatty acid-secreting mutant without depending on mutagenic treatment. This was followed by genome analysis to characterize its genetic background. The selection of spontaneous mutants resistant to the palmitic acid ester surfactant Tween 40 resulted in the isolation of a desired mutant that produced oleic acid, suggesting that a single mutation would cause increased carbon flow down the pathway and subsequent excretion of the oversupplied fatty acid into the medium. Two additional rounds of selection of spontaneous cerulenin-resistant mutants led to increased production of the fatty acid in a stepwise manner. Whole-genome sequencing of the resulting best strain identified three specific mutations (fasR20, fasA63(up), and fasA2623). Allele-specific PCR analysis showed that the mutations arose in that order. Reconstitution experiments with these mutations revealed that only fasR20 gave rise to oleic acid production in the wild-type strain. The other two mutations contributed to an increase in oleic acid production. Deletion of fasR from the wild-type strain led to oleic acid production as well. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the fasR20 mutation brought about upregulation of the fasA and fasB genes encoding fatty acid synthases IA and IB, respectively, by 1.31-fold ± 0.11-fold and 1.29-fold ± 0.12-fold, respectively, and of the accD1 gene encoding the β-subunit of acetyl-CoA carboxylase by 3.56-fold ± 0.97-fold. On the other hand, the fasA63(up) mutation upregulated the fasA gene by 2.67-fold ± 0.16-fold. In flask cultivation with 1% glucose, the fasR20 fasA63(up) fasA2623 triple mutant produced approximately 280 mg of fatty acids/liter, which consisted mainly of oleic acid (208 mg/liter) and palmitic acid (47 mg/liter).

C1 metabolism in Corynebacterium glutamicum: an endogenous pathway for oxidation of methanol to carbon dioxide

Methanol is considered an interesting carbon source in "bio-based" microbial production processes. Since Corynebacterium glutamicum is an important host in industrial biotechnology, in particular for amino acid production, we performed studies of the response of this organism to methanol. The C. glutamicum wild type was able to convert (13)C-labeled methanol to (13)CO2. Analysis of global gene expression in the presence of methanol revealed several genes of ethanol catabolism to be upregulated, indicating that some of the corresponding enzymes are involved in methanol oxidation. Indeed, a mutant lacking the alcohol dehydrogenase gene adhA showed a 62% reduced methanol consumption rate, indicating that AdhA is mainly responsible for methanol oxidation to formaldehyde. Further studies revealed that oxidation of formaldehyde to formate is catalyzed predominantly by two enzymes, the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase Ald and the mycothiol-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase AdhE. The Δald ΔadhE and Δald ΔmshC deletion mutants were severely impaired in their ability to oxidize formaldehyde, but residual methanol oxidation to CO2 was still possible. The oxidation of formate to CO2 is catalyzed by the formate dehydrogenase FdhF, recently identified by us. Similar to the case with ethanol, methanol catabolism is subject to carbon catabolite repression in the presence of glucose and is dependent on the transcriptional regulator RamA, which was previously shown to be essential for expression of adhA and ald. In conclusion, we were able to show that C. glutamicum possesses an endogenous pathway for methanol oxidation to CO2 and to identify the enzymes and a transcriptional regulator involved in this pathway.

Enhanced succinic acid production by Actinobacillus succinogenes after genome shuffling

Succinic acid is an important platform chemical for synthesis of C4 compounds. We applied genome shuffling to improve fermentative production of succinic acid by A. succinogenes. Using a screening strategy composed of selection in fermentation broth, cultured in 96-deep-well plates, and condensed HPLC screening, a starting population of 11 mutants producing a higher succinic acid concentration was selected and subjected to recursive protoplasts fusion. After three rounds of genome shuffling, strain F3-II-3-F was obtained, producing succinic acid at 1.99 g/l/h with a yield of 95.6 g/l. The genome shuffled strain had about a 73 % improvement in succinic acid production compared to the parent strain after 48 h in fed-batch fermentation. The genomic variability of F3-II-3-F was confirmed by amplified fragment-length polymorphism. The activity levels of key enzymes involved in end-product formation from glucose and metabolic flux distribution during succinic acid production were compared between A. succinogenes CGMCC 1593 and F3-II-3-F. Increased activity of glucokinase, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, PEP carboxykinase and fumarase, as well as decreased activity of pyruvate kinase, pyruvate formate-lyase, and acetate kinase explained the enhanced succinic acid production and decreased acetic acid formation. Metabolic flux analysis suggested that increased flux to NADH was the main reason for increased activity of the C4 pathway resulting in increased yields of succinic acid. The present work will be propitious to the development of a bio-succinic acid fermentation industry.

Complex regulation of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase gene pck and characterization of its GntR-type regulator IolR as a repressor of myo-inositol utilization genes in Corynebacterium glutamicum

DNA affinity chromatography with the promoter region of the Corynebacterium glutamicum pck gene, encoding phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, led to the isolation of four transcriptional regulators, i.e., RamA, GntR1, GntR2, and IolR. Determination of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activity of the ΔramA, ΔgntR1 ΔgntR2, and ΔiolR deletion mutants indicated that RamA represses pck during growth on glucose about 2-fold, whereas GntR1, GntR2, and IolR activate pck expression about 2-fold irrespective of whether glucose or acetate served as the carbon source. The DNA binding sites of the four regulators in the pck promoter region were identified and their positions correlated with the predicted functions as repressor or activators. The iolR gene is located upstream and in a divergent orientation with respect to a iol gene cluster, encoding proteins involved in myo-inositol uptake and degradation. Comparative DNA microarray analysis of the ΔiolR mutant and the parental wild-type strain revealed strongly (>100-fold) elevated mRNA levels of the iol genes in the mutant, indicating that the primary function of IolR is the repression of the iol genes. IolR binding sites were identified in the promoter regions of iolC, iolT1, and iolR. IolR therefore is presumably subject to negative autoregulation. A consensus DNA binding motif (5'-KGWCHTRACA-3') which corresponds well to those of other GntR-type regulators of the HutC family was identified. Taken together, our results disclose a complex regulation of the pck gene in C. glutamicum and identify IolR as an efficient repressor of genes involved in myo-inositol catabolism of this organism.

Platform engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum with reduced pyruvate dehydrogenase complex activity for improved production of L-lysine, L-valine, and 2-ketoisovalerate

Exchange of the native Corynebacterium glutamicum promoter of the aceE gene, encoding the E1p subunit of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC), with mutated dapA promoter variants led to a series of C. glutamicum strains with gradually reduced growth rates and PDHC activities. Upon overexpression of the l-valine biosynthetic genes ilvBNCE, all strains produced l-valine. Among these strains, C. glutamicum aceE A16 (pJC4 ilvBNCE) showed the highest biomass and product yields, and thus it was further improved by additional deletion of the pqo and ppc genes, encoding pyruvate:quinone oxidoreductase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, respectively. In fed-batch fermentations at high cell densities, C. glutamicum aceE A16 Δpqo Δppc (pJC4 ilvBNCE) produced up to 738 mM (i.e., 86.5 g/liter) l-valine with an overall yield (YP/S) of 0.36 mol per mol of glucose and a volumetric productivity (QP) of 13.6 mM per h [1.6 g/(liter × h)]. Additional inactivation of the transaminase B gene (ilvE) and overexpression of ilvBNCD instead of ilvBNCE transformed the l-valine-producing strain into a 2-ketoisovalerate producer, excreting up to 303 mM (35 g/liter) 2-ketoisovalerate with a YP/S of 0.24 mol per mol of glucose and a QP of 6.9 mM per h [0.8 g/(liter × h)]. The replacement of the aceE promoter by the dapA-A16 promoter in the two C. glutamicum l-lysine producers DM1800 and DM1933 improved the production by 100% and 44%, respectively. These results demonstrate that C. glutamicum strains with reduced PDHC activity are an excellent platform for the production of pyruvate-derived products.

Direct L-lysine production from cellobiose by Corynebacterium glutamicum displaying beta-glucosidase on its cell surface

We constructed beta-glucosidase (BGL)-displaying Corynebacterium glutamicum, and direct L-lysine fermentation from cellobiose was demonstrated. After screening active BGLs, Sde1394, which is a BGL from Saccharophagus degradans, was successfully displayed on the C. glutamicum cell surface using porin as an anchor protein, and cellobiose was directly assimilated as a carbon source. The optical density at 600 nm of BGL-displaying C. glutamicum grown on cellobiose as a carbon source reached 23.5 after 48 h of cultivation, which was almost the same as that of glucose after 24 h of cultivation. Finally, Sde1394-displaying C. glutamicum produced 1.08 g/l of L-lysine from 20 g/l of cellobiose after 4 days of cultivation, which was about threefold higher than the amount of produced L-lysine using BGL-secretory C. glutamicum strains (0.38 g/l after 5 days of cultivation). This is the first report on amino acid production using cellobiose as a carbon source by BGL-expressing C. glutamicum.

OxyR acts as a transcriptional repressor of hydrogen peroxide-inducible antioxidant genes in Corynebacterium glutamicum R

OxyR, a LysR-type transcriptional regulator, has been established as a redox-responsive activator of antioxidant genes in bacteria. This study shows that OxyR acts as a transcriptional repressor of katA, dps, ftn and cydA in Corynebacterium glutamicum R. katA encodes H2O2-detoxifing enzyme catalase, dps and ftn are implicated in iron homeostasis and cydA encodes a subunit of cytochrome bd oxidase. Quantitative RT-PCR analyses revealed that expression of katA and dps, but not of ftn and cydA, was induced by H2O2. Disruption of the oxyR gene encoding OxyR resulted in a marked increase in katA and dps mRNAs to a level higher than that induced by H2O2, and the oxyR-deficient mutant showed a H2O2-resistant phenotype. This is in contrast to the conventional OxyR-dependent regulatory model. ftn and cydA were also upregulated by oxyR disruption but to a smaller extent. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed that the OxyR protein specifically binds to all four upstream regions of the respective genes under reducing conditions. We observed that the oxidized form of OxyR similarly bound to not only the target promoter regions, but also nonspecific DNA fragments. Based on these findings, we propose that the transcriptional repression by OxyR is alleviated under oxidative stress conditions in a titration mechanism due to the decreased specificity of its DNA-binding activity. DNase I footprinting analyses revealed that the OxyR-binding site in the four target promoters is ~ 50 bp in length and has multiple T-N11-A motifs, a feature of LysR-type transcriptional regulators, but no significant overall sequence conservation.