Carbon-limited fed-batch production of medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates by a phaZ-knockout strain of Pseudomonas putida KT2440

Genome-scale and pathway engineering for the sustainable aviation fuel precursor isoprenol production in Pseudomonas putida

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will significantly impact global warming in the aviation sector, and important SAF targets are emerging. Isoprenol is a precursor for a promising SAF compound DMCO (1,4-dimethylcyclooctane) and has been produced in several engineered microorganisms. Recently, Pseudomonas putida has gained interest as a future host for isoprenol bioproduction as it can utilize carbon sources from inexpensive plant biomass. Here, we engineer metabolically versatile host P. putida for isoprenol production. We employ two computational modeling approaches (Bilevel optimization and Constrained Minimal Cut Sets) to predict gene knockout targets and optimize the "IPP-bypass" pathway in P. putida to maximize isoprenol production. Altogether, the highest isoprenol production titer from P. putida was achieved at 3.5 g/L under fed-batch conditions. This combination of computational modeling and strain engineering on P. putida for an advanced biofuels production has vital significance in enabling a bioproduction process that can use renewable carbon streams.

Enhancing Production of Medium-Chain-Length Polyhydroxyalkanoates from Pseudomonas sp. SG4502 by tac Enhancer Insertion

Pseudomonas sp. SG4502 screened from biodiesel fuel by-products can synthesize medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHAs) using glycerol as a substrate. It contains a typical PHA class II synthase gene cluster. This study revealed two genetic engineering methods for improving the mcl-PHA accumulation capacity of Pseudomonas sp. SG4502. One way was to knock out the PHA-depolymerase phaZ gene, the other way was to insert a tac enhancer into the upstream of the phaC1/phaC2 genes. Yields of mcl-PHAs produced from 1% sodium octanoate by +(tac-phaC2) and ∆phaZ strains were enhanced by 53.8% and 23.1%, respectively, compared with those produced by the wild-type strain. The increase in mcl-PHA yield from +(tac-phaC2) and ∆phaZ was due to the transcriptional level of the phaC2 and phaZ genes, as determined by RT-qPCR (the carbon source was sodium octanoate). ¹H-NMR results showed that the synthesized products contained 3-hydroxyoctanoic acid (3HO), 3-hydroxydecanoic acid (3HD) and 3-hydroxydodecanoic acid (3HDD) units, which is consistent with those synthesized by the wild-type strain. The size-exclusion chromatography by GPC of mcl-PHAs from the (∆phaZ), +(tac-phaC1) and +(tac-phaC2) strains were 2.67, 2.52 and 2.60, respectively, all of which were lower than that of the wild-type strain (4.56). DSC analysis showed that the melting temperature of mcl-PHAs produced by recombinant strains ranged from 60 °C to 65 °C, which was lower than that of the wild-type strain. Finally, TG analysis showed that the decomposition temperature of mcl-PHAs synthesized by the (∆phaZ), +(tac-phaC1) and +(tac-phaC2) strains was 8.4 °C, 14.7 °C and 10.1 °C higher than that of the wild-type strain, respectively.

Biosynthesis and Characterization of Medium-Chain-Length Polyhydroxyalkanoate with an Enriched 3-Hydroxydodecanoate Monomer from a Pseudomonas chlororaphis Cell Factory

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have been reported with agricultural and medical applications in virtue of their biodegradable and biocompatible properties. Here, we systematically engineered three modules for the enhanced biosynthesis of medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (mcl-PHA) in Pseudomonas chlororaphis HT66. The phzE, fadA, and fadB genes were deleted to block the native phenazine pathway and weaken the fatty acid β-oxidation pathway. Additionally, a PHA depolymerase gene phaZ was knocked out to prevent the degradation of mcl-PHA. Three genes involved in the mcl-PHA biosynthesis pathway were co-overexpressed to increase carbon flux. The engineered strain HT4Δ::C1C2J exhibited an 18.2 g/L cell dry weight with 84.9 wt % of mcl-PHA in a shake-flask culture, and the 3-hydroxydodecanoate (3HDD) monomer was increased to 71.6 mol %. Thermophysical and mechanical properties of mcl-PHA were improved with an enriched ratio of 3HDD. This study demonstrated a rational metabolic engineering approach to enhance the production of mcl-PHA with the enriched dominant monomer and improved material properties.

Fed-Batch mcl- Polyhydroxyalkanoates Production in Pseudomonas putida KT2440 and ΔphaZ Mutant on Biodiesel-Derived Crude Glycerol

Crude glycerol has emerged as a suitable feedstock for the biotechnological production of various industrial chemicals given its high surplus catalyzed by the biodiesel industry. Pseudomonas bacteria metabolize the polyol into several biopolymers, including alginate and medium-chain-length poly(3-hydroxyalkanoates) (mcl-PHAs). Although P. putida is a suited platform to derive these polyoxoesters from crude glycerol, the attained concentrations in batch and fed-batch cultures are still low. In this study, we employed P. putida KT2440 and the hyper-PHA producer ΔphaZ mutant in two different fed-batch modes to synthesize mcl-PHAs from raw glycerol. Initially, the cells grew in a batch phase (μ_max 0.21 h^–1) for 22 h followed by a carbon-limiting exponential feeding, where the specific growth rate was set at 0.1 (h^–1), resulting in a cell dry weight (CDW) of nearly 50 (g L^–1) at 40 h cultivation. During the PHA production stage, we supplied the substrate at a constant rate of 50 (g h^–1), where the KT2440 and the ΔphaZ produced 9.7 and 12.7 gPHA L^–1, respectively, after 60 h cultivation. We next evaluated the PHA production ability of the P. putida strains using a DO-stat approach under nitrogen depletion. Citric acid was the main by-product secreted by the cells, accumulating in the culture broth up to 48 (g L^–1) under nitrogen limitation. The mutant ΔphaZ amassed 38.9% of the CDW as mcl-PHA and exhibited a specific PHA volumetric productivity of 0.34 (g L^–1 h^–1), 48% higher than the parental KT2440 under the same growth conditions. The biosynthesized mcl-PHAs had average molecular weights ranging from 460 to 505 KDa and a polydispersity index (PDI) of 2.4–2.6. Here, we demonstrated that the DO-stat feeding approach in high cell density cultures enables the high yield production of mcl-PHA in P. putida strains using the industrial crude glycerol, where the fed-batch process selection is essential to exploit the superior biopolymer production hallmarks of engineered bacterial strains.

Development of a CRISPR/Cas9n-based tool for metabolic engineering of Pseudomonas putida for ferulic acid-to-polyhydroxyalkanoate bioconversion

Ferulic acid is a ubiquitous phenolic compound in lignocellulose, which is recognized for its role in the microbial carbon catabolism and industrial value. However, its recalcitrance and toxicity poses a challenge for ferulic acid-to-bioproducts bioconversion. Here, we develop a genome editing strategy for Pseudomonas putida KT2440 using an integrated CRISPR/Cas9n-λ-Red system with pyrF as a selection marker, which maintains cell viability and genetic stability, increases mutation efficiency, and simplifies genetic manipulation. Via this method, four functional modules, comprised of nine genes involved in ferulic acid catabolism and polyhydroxyalkanoate biosynthesis, were integrated into the genome, generating the KTc9n20 strain. After metabolic engineering and optimization of C/N ratio, polyhydroxyalkanoate production was increased to ~270 mg/L, coupled with ~20 mM ferulic acid consumption. This study not only establishes a simple and efficient genome editing strategy, but also offers an encouraging example of how to apply this method to improve microbial aromatic compound bioconversion.

Yueyue Zhou et al. develop a genetic engineering method that increases the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate from ferulic acid, which is toxic at high concentrations. This study provides insight into the bioconversion of the aromatic compound in Pseudomonas.

Screening of endogenous strong promoters for enhanced production of medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates in Pseudomonas mendocina NK-01

Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) can be produced by microorganisms from renewable resources and is regarded as a promising bioplastic to replace petroleum-based plastics. Pseudomonas mendocina NK-01 is a medium-chain-length PHA (mcl-PHA)-producing strain and its whole-genome sequence is currently available. The yield of mcl-PHA in P. mendocina NK-01 is expected to be improved by applying a promoter engineering strategy. However, a limited number of well-characterized promoters has greatly restricted the application of promoter engineering for increasing the yield of mcl-PHA in P. mendocina NK-01. In this work, 10 endogenous promoters from P. mendocina NK-01 were identified based on RNA-seq and promoter prediction results. Subsequently, 10 putative promoters were characterized for their strength through the expression of a reporter gene gfp. As a result, five strong promoters designated as P4, P6, P9, P16 and P25 were identified based on transcriptional level and GFP fluorescence intensity measurements. To evaluate whether the screened promoters can be used to enhance transcription of PHA synthase gene (phaC), the three promoters P4, P6 and P16 were separately integrated into upstream of the phaC operon in the genome of P. mendocina NK-01, resulting in the recombinant strains NKU-4C1, NKU-6C1 and NKU-16C1. As expected, the transcriptional levels of phaC1 and phaC2 in the recombinant strains were increased as shown by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. The phaZ gene encoding PHA depolymerase was further deleted to construct the recombinant strains NKU-∆phaZ-4C1, NKU-∆phaZ-6C1 and NKU-∆phaZ-16C1. The results from shake-flask fermentation indicated that the mcl-PHA titer of recombinant strain NKU-∆phaZ-16C1 was increased from 17 to 23 wt% compared with strain NKU-∆phaZ. This work provides a feasible method to discover strong promoters in P. mendocina NK-01 and highlights the potential of the screened endogenous strong promoters for metabolic engineering of P. mendocina NK-01 to increase the yield of mcl-PHA.

Pseudomonas putida-a versatile host for the production of natural products

The biosynthesis of natural products by heterologous expression of biosynthetic pathways in amenable production strains enables biotechnological access to a variety of valuable compounds by conversion of renewable resources. Pseudomonas putida has emerged as a microbial laboratory work horse, with elaborated techniques for cultivation and genetic manipulation available. Beyond that, this bacterium offers several particular advantages with regard to natural product biosynthesis, notably a versatile intrinsic metabolism with diverse enzymatic capacities as well as an outstanding tolerance to xenobiotics. Therefore, it has been applied for recombinant biosynthesis of several valuable natural products. This review provides an overview of applications of P. putida as a host organism for the recombinant biosynthesis of such natural products, including rhamnolipids, terpenoids, polyketides and non-ribosomal peptides, and other amino acid-derived compounds. The focus is on de novo natural product synthesis from intrinsic building blocks by means of heterologous gene expression and strain engineering. Finally, the future potential of the bacterium as a chassis organism for synthetic microbiology is pointed out.