Co-transcription of the celC gene cluster in Clostridium thermocellum

Genome-Wide Transcription Factor DNA Binding Sites and Gene Regulatory Networks in Clostridium thermocellum

Clostridium thermocellum is a thermophilic bacterium recognized for its natural ability to effectively deconstruct cellulosic biomass. While there is a large body of studies on the genetic engineering of this bacterium and its physiology to-date, there is limited knowledge in the transcriptional regulation in this organism and thermophilic bacteria in general. The study herein is the first report of a large-scale application of DNA-affinity purification sequencing (DAP-seq) to transcription factors (TFs) from a bacterium. We applied DAP-seq to > 90 TFs in C. thermocellum and detected genome-wide binding sites for 11 of them. We then compiled and aligned DNA binding sequences from these TFs to deduce the primary DNA-binding sequence motifs for each TF. These binding motifs are further validated with electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and are used to identify individual TFs’ regulatory targets in C. thermocellum. Our results led to the discovery of novel, uncharacterized TFs as well as homologues of previously studied TFs including RexA-, LexA-, and LacI-type TFs. We then used these data to reconstruct gene regulatory networks for the 11 TFs individually, which resulted in a global network encompassing the TFs with some interconnections. As gene regulation governs and constrains how bacteria behave, our findings shed light on the roles of TFs delineated by their regulons, and potentially provides a means to enable rational, advanced genetic engineering of C. thermocellum and other organisms alike toward a desired phenotype.

Degradation of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) by a bacterial consortium and characterization of two novel esterases capable of hydrolyzing PAEs sequentially

Phthalate esters (PAEs), a class of toxic anthropogenic compounds, have been predominantly used as additives or plasticizers, and great concern and interests have been raised regarding its environmental behavior and degradation mechanism. In the present study, a bacterial consortium consisting of Microbacterium sp. PAE-1 and Pandoraea sp. PAE-2 was isolated by the enrichment method, which could degrade dibutyl phthalate (DBP) completely by biochemical cooperation. DBP was converted to phthalic acid (PA) via monobutyl phthalate (MBP) by two sequential hydrolysis steps in strain PAE-1, and then PA was further degraded by strain PAE-2. Strain PAE-1 could hydrolyze many dialkyl Phthalate esters (PAEs) including dimethyl, diethyl, dibutyl, dipentyl, benzyl butyl, dihexyl, di-(2-ethyhexyl) and their corresponding monoalkyl PAEs. Two esterase genes named dpeH and mpeH, located in the same transcription unit, were cloned from strain PAE-1 by the shotgun method and heterologously expressed in Escherichia. coli (DE3). The Km and kcat values of DpeH for DBP were 9.60 ± 0.97 μM and (2.72 ± 0.06) × 10⁶ s^-1, while those of MpeH for MBP were 18.61 ± 2.00 μM and (5.83 ± 1.00) × 10⁵ s^-1, respectively. DpeH could only hydrolyze dialkyl PAEs to the corresponding monoalkyl PAEs, which were then hydrolyzed to PA by MpeH. DpeH shares the highest similarity (53%) with an alpha/beta hydrolase from Microbacterium sp. MED-G48 and MpeH shows only 25% identity with a secreted lipase from Trichophyton benhamiae CBS 112371, indicating that DpeH and MpeH are two novel hydrolases against PAEs.

Unraveling essential cellulosomal components of the (Pseudo)Bacteroides cellulosolvens reveals an extensive reservoir of novel catalytic enzymes

BACKGROUND

(Pseudo)Bacteroides cellulosolvens is a cellulolytic bacterium that produces the most extensive and intricate cellulosomal system known in nature. Recently, the elaborate architecture of the B. cellulosolvens cellulosomal system was revealed from analysis of its genome sequence, and the first evidence regarding the interactions between its structural and enzymatic components were detected in vitro. Yet, the understanding of the cellulolytic potential of the bacterium in carbohydrate deconstruction is inextricably linked to its high-molecular-weight protein complexes, which are secreted from the bacterium.

RESULTS

The current proteome-wide work reveals patterns of protein expression of the various cellulosomal components, and explores the signature of differential expression upon growth of the bacterium on two major carbon sources-cellobiose and microcrystalline cellulose. Mass spectrometry analysis of the bacterial secretome revealed the expression of 24 scaffoldin structural units and 166 dockerin-bearing components (mainly enzymes), in addition to free enzymatic subunits. The dockerin-bearing components comprise cell-free and cell-bound cellulosomes for more efficient carbohydrate degradation. Various glycoside hydrolase (GH) family members were represented among 102 carbohydrate-degrading enzymes, including the omnipresent, most abundant GH48 exoglucanase. Specific cellulosomal components were found in different molecular-weight fractions associated with cell growth on different carbon sources. Overall, microcrystalline cellulose-derived cellulosomes showed markedly higher expression levels of the structural and enzymatic components, and exhibited the highest degradation activity on five different cellulosic and/or hemicellulosic carbohydrates. The cellulosomal activity of B. cellulosolvens showed high degradation rates that are very promising in biotechnological terms and were compatible with the activity levels exhibited by Clostridium thermocellum purified cellulosomes.

CONCLUSIONS

The current research demonstrates the involvement of key cellulosomal factors that participate in the mechanism of carbohydrate degradation by B. cellulosolvens. The powerful ability of the bacterium to exhibit different degradation strategies on various carbon sources was revealed. The novel reservoir of cellulolytic components of the cellulosomal degradation machineries may serve as a pool for designing new cellulolytic cocktails for biotechnological purposes.

The LacI family protein GlyR3 co-regulates the celC operon and manB in Clostridium thermocellum

BACKGROUND

Clostridium thermocellum utilizes a wide variety of free and cellulosomal cellulases and accessory enzymes to hydrolyze polysaccharides present in complex substrates. To date only a few studies have unveiled the details by which the expression of these cellulases are regulated. Recent studies have described the auto regulation of the celC operon and determined that the celC-glyR3-licA gene cluster and nearby manB-celT gene cluster are co-transcribed as polycistronic mRNA.

RESULTS

In this paper, we demonstrate that the GlyR3 protein mediates the regulation of manB. We first identify putative GlyR3 binding sites within or just upstream of the coding regions of manB and celT. Using an electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), we determined that a higher concentration of GlyR3 is required to effectively bind to the putative manB site in comparison to the celC site. Neither the putative celT site nor random DNA significantly binds GlyR3. While laminaribiose interfered with GlyR3 binding to the celC binding site, binding to the manB site was unaffected. In the presence of laminaribiose, in vivo transcription of the celC-glyR3-licA gene cluster increases, while manB expression is repressed, compared to in the absence of laminaribiose, consistent with the results from the EMSA. An in vitro transcription assay demonstrated that GlyR3 and laminaribiose interactions were responsible for the observed patters of in vivo transcription.

CONCLUSIONS

Together these results reveal a mechanism by which manB is expressed at low concentrations of GlyR3 but repressed at high concentrations. In this way, C. thermocellum is able to co-regulate both the celC and manB gene clusters in response to the availability of β-1,3-polysaccharides in its environment.

LacI Transcriptional Regulatory Networks in Clostridium thermocellum DSM1313

Organisms regulate gene expression in response to the environment to coordinate metabolic reactions. Clostridium thermocellum expresses enzymes for both lignocellulose solubilization and its fermentation to produce ethanol. One LacI regulator termed GlyR3 in C. thermocellum ATCC 27405 was previously identified as a repressor of neighboring genes with repression relieved by laminaribiose (a β-1,3 disaccharide). To better understand the three C. thermocellum LacI regulons, deletion mutants were constructed using the genetically tractable DSM1313 strain. DSM1313 lacI genes Clo1313_2023, Clo1313_0089, and Clo1313_0396 encode homologs of GlyR1, GlyR2, and GlyR3 from strain ATCC 27405, respectively. Growth on cellobiose or pretreated switchgrass was unaffected by any of the gene deletions under controlled-pH fermentations. Global gene expression patterns from time course analyses identified glycoside hydrolase genes encoding hemicellulases, including cellulosomal enzymes, that were highly upregulated (5- to 100-fold) in the absence of each LacI regulator, suggesting that these were repressed under wild-type conditions and that relatively few genes were controlled by each regulator under the conditions tested. Clo1313_2022, encoding lichenase enzyme LicB, was derepressed in a ΔglyR1 strain. Higher expression of Clo1313_1398, which encodes the Man5A mannanase, was observed in a ΔglyR2 strain, and α-mannobiose was identified as a probable inducer for GlyR2-regulated genes. For the ΔglyR3 strain, upregulation of the two genes adjacent to glyR3 in the celC-glyR3-licA operon was consistent with earlier studies. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays have confirmed LacI transcription factor binding to specific regions of gene promoters.IMPORTANCE Understanding C. thermocellum gene regulation is of importance for improved fundamental knowledge of this industrially relevant bacterium. Most LacI transcription factors regulate local genomic regions; however, a small number of those genes encode global regulatory proteins with extensive regulons. This study indicates that there are small specific C. thermocellum LacI regulons. The identification of LacI repressor activity for hemicellulase gene expression is a key result of this work and will add to the small body of existing literature on the area of gene regulation in C. thermocellum.

Thermophilic microbial cellulose decomposition and methanogenesis pathways recharacterized by metatranscriptomic and metagenomic analysis

The metatranscriptomic recharacterization in the present study captured microbial enzymes at the unprecedented scale of 40,000 active genes belonged to 2,269 KEGG functions were identified. The novel information obtained herein revealed interesting patterns and provides an initial transcriptional insight into the thermophilic cellulose methanization process. Synergistic beta-sugar consumption by Thermotogales is crucial for cellulose hydrolysis in the thermophilic cellulose-degrading consortium because the primary cellulose degraders Clostridiales showed metabolic incompetence in subsequent beta-sugar pathways. Additionally, comparable transcription of putative Sus-like polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) was observed in an unclassified order of Bacteroidetes suggesting the importance of PULs mechanism for polysaccharides breakdown in thermophilic systems. Despite the abundance of acetate as a fermentation product, the acetate-utilizing Methanosarcinales were less prevalent by 60% than the hydrogenotrophic Methanobacteriales. Whereas the aceticlastic methanogenesis pathway was markedly more active in terms of transcriptional activities in key genes, indicating that the less dominant Methanosarcinales are more active than their hydrogenotrophic counterparts in methane metabolism. These findings suggest that the minority of aceticlastic methanogens are not necessarily associated with repressed metabolism, in a pattern that was commonly observed in the cellulose-based methanization consortium, and thus challenge the causal likelihood proposed by previous studies.

Comparison of transcriptional profiles of Clostridium thermocellum grown on cellobiose and pretreated yellow poplar using RNA-Seq

The anaerobic, thermophilic bacterium, Clostridium thermocellum, secretes multi-protein enzyme complexes, termed cellulosomes, which synergistically interact with the microbial cell surface and efficiently disassemble plant cell wall biomass. C. thermocellum has also been considered a potential consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) organism due to its ability to produce the biofuel products, hydrogen, and ethanol. We found that C. thermocellum fermentation of pretreated yellow poplar (PYP) produced 30 and 39% of ethanol and hydrogen product concentrations, respectively, compared to fermentation of cellobiose. RNA-seq was used to analyze the transcriptional profiles of these cells. The PYP-grown cells taken for analysis at the late stationary phase showed 1211 genes up-regulated and 314 down-regulated by more than two-fold compared to the cellobiose-grown cells. These affected genes cover a broad spectrum of specific functional categories. The transcriptional analysis was further validated by sub-proteomics data taken from the literature; as well as by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses of selected genes. Specifically, 47 cellulosomal protein-encoding genes, genes for 4 pairs of SigI-RsgI for polysaccharide sensing, 7 cellodextrin ABC transporter genes, and a set of NAD(P)H hydogenase and alcohol dehydrogenase genes were up-regulated for cells growing on PYP compared to cellobiose. These genes could be potential candidates for future studies aimed at gaining insight into the regulatory mechanism of this organism as well as for improvement of C. thermocellum in its role as a CBP organism.

Clostridium thermocellum transcriptomic profiles after exposure to furfural or heat stress

BACKGROUND

The thermophilic anaerobe Clostridium thermocellum is a candidate consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) biocatalyst for cellulosic ethanol production. It is capable of both cellulose solubilization and its fermentation to produce lignocellulosic ethanol. Intolerance to stresses routinely encountered during industrial fermentations may hinder the commercial development of this organism. A previous C. thermocellum ethanol stress study showed that the largest transcriptomic response was in genes and proteins related to nitrogen uptake and metabolism.

RESULTS

In this study, C. thermocellum was grown to mid-exponential phase and treated with furfural or heat to a final concentration of 3 g.L-1 or 68°C respectively to investigate general and specific physiological and regulatory stress responses. Samples were taken at 10, 30, 60 and 120 min post-shock, and from untreated control fermentations, for transcriptomic analyses and fermentation product determinations and compared to a published dataset from an ethanol stress study. Urea uptake genes were induced following furfural stress, but not to the same extent as ethanol stress and transcription from these genes was largely unaffected by heat stress. The largest transcriptomic response to furfural stress was genes for sulfate transporter subunits and enzymes in the sulfate assimilatory pathway, although these genes were also affected late in the heat and ethanol stress responses. Lactate production was higher in furfural treated culture, although the lactate dehydrogenase gene was not differentially expressed under this condition. Other redox related genes such as a copy of the rex gene, a bifunctional acetaldehyde-CoA/alcohol dehydrogenase and adjacent genes did show lower expression after furfural stress compared to the control, heat and ethanol fermentation profiles. Heat stress induced expression from chaperone related genes and overlap was observed with the responses to the other stresses. This study suggests the involvement of C. thermocellum genes with functions in oxidative stress protection, electron transfer, detoxification, sulfur and nitrogen acquisition, and DNA repair mechanisms in its stress responses and the use of different regulatory networks to coordinate and control adaptation.

CONCLUSIONS

This study has identified C. thermocellum gene regulatory motifs and aspects of physiology and gene regulation for further study. The nexus between future systems biology studies and recently developed genetic tools for C. thermocellum offers the potential for more rapid strain development and for broader insights into this organism's physiology and regulation.

Proteomic analysis of Clostridium thermocellum core metabolism: relative protein expression profiles and growth phase-dependent changes in protein expression

Background

Clostridium thermocellum produces H₂ and ethanol, as well as CO₂, acetate, formate, and lactate, directly from cellulosic biomass. It is therefore an attractive model for biofuel production via consolidated bioprocessing. Optimization of end-product yields and titres is crucial for making biofuel production economically feasible. Relative protein expression profiles may provide targets for metabolic engineering, while understanding changes in protein expression and metabolism in response to carbon limitation, pH, and growth phase may aid in reactor optimization. We performed shotgun 2D-HPLC-MS/MS on closed-batch cellobiose-grown exponential phase C. thermocellum cell-free extracts to determine relative protein expression profiles of core metabolic proteins involved carbohydrate utilization, energy conservation, and end-product synthesis. iTRAQ (isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation) based protein quantitation was used to determine changes in core metabolic proteins in response to growth phase.

Results

Relative abundance profiles revealed differential levels of putative enzymes capable of catalyzing parallel pathways. The majority of proteins involved in pyruvate catabolism and end-product synthesis were detected with high abundance, with the exception of aldehyde dehydrogenase, ferredoxin-dependent Ech-type [NiFe]-hydrogenase, and RNF-type NADH:ferredoxin oxidoreductase. Using 4-plex 2D-HPLC-MS/MS, 24% of the 144 core metabolism proteins detected demonstrated moderate changes in expression during transition from exponential to stationary phase. Notably, proteins involved in pyruvate synthesis decreased in stationary phase, whereas proteins involved in glycogen metabolism, pyruvate catabolism, and end-product synthesis increased in stationary phase. Several proteins that may directly dictate end-product synthesis patterns, including pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductases, alcohol dehydrogenases, and a putative bifurcating hydrogenase, demonstrated differential expression during transition from exponential to stationary phase.

Conclusions

Relative expression profiles demonstrate which proteins are likely utilized in carbohydrate utilization and end-product synthesis and suggest that H₂ synthesis occurs via bifurcating hydrogenases while ethanol synthesis is predominantly catalyzed by a bifunctional aldehyde/alcohol dehydrogenase. Differences in expression profiles of core metabolic proteins in response to growth phase may dictate carbon and electron flux towards energy storage compounds and end-products. Combined knowledge of relative protein expression levels and their changes in response to physiological conditions may aid in targeted metabolic engineering strategies and optimization of fermentation conditions for improvement of biofuels production.