Production of secreted guar ?-galactosidase by Lactococcus lactis

Unravelling metabolic cross-feeding in a yeast-bacteria community using 13 C-based proteomics

Cross-feeding is fundamental to the diversity and function of microbial communities. However, identification of cross-fed metabolites is often challenging due to the universality of metabolic and biosynthetic intermediates. Here, we use ¹³ C isotope tracing in peptides to elucidate cross-fed metabolites in co-cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactococcus lactis. The community was grown on lactose as the main carbon source with either glucose or galactose fraction of the molecule labelled with ¹³ C. Data analysis allowing for the possible mass-shifts yielded hundreds of peptides for which we could assign both species identity and labelling degree. The labelling pattern showed that the yeast utilized galactose and, to a lesser extent, lactic acid shared by L. lactis as carbon sources. While the yeast provided essential amino acids to the bacterium as expected, the data also uncovered a complex pattern of amino acid exchange. The identity of the cross-fed metabolites was further supported by metabolite labelling in the co-culture supernatant, and by diminished fitness of a galactose-negative yeast mutant in the community. Together, our results demonstrate the utility of ¹³ C-based proteomics for uncovering microbial interactions.

Presence of galactose in precultures induces lacS and leads to short lag phase in lactose-grown Lactococcus lactis cultures

Lactose conversion by lactic acid bacteria is of high industrial relevance and consistent starter culture quality is of outmost importance. We observed that Lactococcus lactis using the high-affinity lactose-phosphotransferase system excreted galactose towards the end of the lactose consumption phase. The excreted galactose was re-consumed after lactose depletion. The lacS gene, known to encode a lactose permease with affinity for galactose, a putative galactose–lactose antiporter, was upregulated under the conditions studied. When transferring cells from anaerobic to respiration-permissive conditions, lactose-assimilating strains exhibited a long and non-reproducible lag phase. Through systematic preculture experiments, the presence of galactose in the precultures was correlated to short and reproducible lag phases in respiration-permissive main cultivations. For starter culture production, the presence of galactose during propagation of dairy strains can provide a physiological marker for short culture lag phase in lactose-grown cultures.

Effect of cultivating conditions on alpha-galactosidase production by a novel Aspergillus foetidus ZU-G1 strain in solid-state fermentation

The work is intended to achieve optimum culture conditions of alpha-galactosidase production by a mutant strain Aspergillus foetidus ZU-G1 in solid-state fermentation (SSF). Certain fermentation parameters involving moisture content, incubation temperature, cultivation period of seed, inoculum volume, initial pH value, layers of pledget, load size of medium and period of cultivation were investigated separately. The optimal cultivating conditions of alpha-galactosidase production in SSF were 60% initial moisture of medium, 28 degrees C incubation temperature, 18 h cultivation period of seed, 10% inoculum volume, 5.0 approximately 6.0 initial pH of medium, 6 layers of pledget and 10 g dry matter loadage. Under the optimized cultivation conditions, the maximum alpha-galactosidase production was 2 037.51 U/g dry matter near the 144th hour of fermentation.

Optimization of the fermentation medium for alpha-galactosidase production from Aspergillus foetidus ZU-G1 using response surface methodology

The optimization of fermentation medium for alpha-galactosidase production by Aspergillus foetidus ZU-G1 was investigated in shaker flask fermentation. A one-factor-at-a-time experiment was used to screen the preferable nutriment (carbon sources, nitrogen sources, and essential elements) for alpha-galactosidase production. A fractional factorial design was used to screen the main 5 factors, soybean meal, wheat bran, KH2PO4, FeSO4 x 7 H2O, and the medium initial pH, that affected the production of alpha-galactosidase. The central composite experimental design was further adopted to derive a statistical model for optimizing the composition of the fermentation medium. The experimental results showed that the optimum fermentation medium for alpha-galactosidase production by Aspergillus foetidus ZU-G1 was composed of 3.2% soybean meal (w/v), 2% wheat bran (w/v), 0.1% KH2PO4 (w/v), and 0.05% FeSO4 x 7 H2O (w/v); initial medium pH was 6.31. The results further predicted that alpha-galactosidase activity reached 64.75 U/mL after 96-h incubation in this medium, which was approximately 7 times higher than that incubated in the nonoptimized medium. The time course of alpha-galactosidase production in the optimized medium composition was also carried out to validate the model.

Heterologous expression of the plant coumarate: CoA ligase in Lactococcus lactis

AIMS

To demonstrate the expression of coumarate : CoA ligase of Arabidopsis thaliana in Lactococcus lactis as a first step of cloning the vanillin pathway.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The 4CL gene was amplified from a cDNA library of A. thaliana by PCR and subcloned into a multicopy lactococcal vector where the expression is under the nisA promoter. The maximum yield of the protein in the recombinant strain of L. lactis was obtained 3 h after induction with 10 ng ml(-1) of nisin. However, these levels were only fraction of those detected in cell extracts of Pseudomonas fluorescens AN103 strain which naturally expresses its own enzyme when grown in the presence of ferulic acid as a carbon source. Among different substrates examined, the enzyme was most active against coumaric acid.

CONCLUSIONS

The gene encoding coumarate : CoA ligase in A. thaliana was isolated, sequenced, cloned and expressed in L. lactis.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

This study represents the first of the two steps for genetic engineering of the vanillin pathway in the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) organism L. lactis.

Strategies for efficient production of heterologous proteins in Escherichia coli

In recent years, the number of recombinant proteins used for therapeutic applications has increased dramatically. Production of these proteins has a remarkable demand in the market. Escherichia coli offers a means for the rapid and economical production of recombinant proteins. These advantages, coupled with a wealth of biochemical and genetic knowledge, have enabled the production of such economically therapeutic proteins such as insulin and bovine growth hormone. These demands have driven the development of a variety of strategies for achieving high-level expression of protein, particularly involving several aspects such as expression vectors design, gene dosage, promoter strength (transcriptional regulation), mRNA stability, translation initiation and termination (translational regulation), host design considerations, codon usage, and fermentation factors available for manipulating the expression conditions, which are the major challenges is obtaining the high yield of protein at low cost.

Expression in bacteria other than Escherichia coli

Although many bacteria are used for the expression of foreign genes, there is still a need to develop better expression systems. Advances have been made in the stabilization of gene maintenance and in the control of expression, therefore increasing the potential usefulness of some of these bacteria.