A new approach for improving epothilone B yield in Sorangium cellulosum by the introduction of vgb epoF genes

Vitreoscilla Hemoglobin Improves Sophorolipid Production in Starmerella Bombicola O-13-1 Under Oxygen Limited Conditions

Sophorolipids (SLs) are homologous microbial secondary metabolites produced by Starmerella bombicola and have been widely applied in many industrial fields. The biosynthesis of SLs is a highly aerobic process and is often limited by low dissolved oxygen (DO) levels. In this study, the Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) gene was transformed into S. bombicola O-13-1 by homologous recombination to alleviate oxygen limitation. VHb expression improved the intracellular oxygen utilization efficiency under either oxygen-rich or oxygen-limited conditions. In shake flask culture, the production of SLs was higher in the recombinant (VHb⁺) strain than in the wild-type (VHb^-) strain, while the oxygen uptake rate of the recombinant (VHb⁺) strain was significantly lower than that of the wild-type (VHb^-) strain. In a 5 L bioreactor, the production of SLs did not increase significantly, but the DO level in the fermentation broth of the VHb⁺ strain was 21.8% higher than that of VHb^- strain under oxygen-rich conditions. Compared to wide-type strains (VHb^-), VHb expression enhanced SLs production by 25.1% in the recombinants (VHb⁺) under oxygen-limited conditions. In addition, VHb expression raised the transcription levels of key genes involved in the electron transfer chain (NDH, SDH, COX), TCA cycle (CS, ICD, KDG1) and SL synthesis (CYP52M1 and UGTA1) in the recombinant (VHb⁺) strains. VHb expression in S. bombicola could enhance SLs biosynthesis and intracellular oxygen utilization efficiency by increasing ATP production and cellular respiration. Our findings highlight the potential use of VHb to improve the oxygen utilization efficiency of S. bombicola in the industrial-scale production of SLs using industrial and agricultural by-products like molasses and waste oil as fermentation feedstock.

Mitotic Poisons in Research and Medicine

Cancer is one of the greatest challenges of the modern medicine. Although much effort has been made in the development of novel cancer therapeutics, it still remains one of the most common causes of human death in the world, mainly in low and middle-income countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer treatment services are not available in more then 70% of low-income countries (90% of high-income countries have them available), and also approximately 70% of cancer deaths are reported in low-income countries. Various approaches on how to combat cancer diseases have since been described, targeting cell division being among them. The so-called mitotic poisons are one of the cornerstones in cancer therapies. The idea that cancer cells usually divide almost uncontrolled and far more rapidly than normal cells have led us to think about such compounds that would take advantage of this difference and target the division of such cells. Many groups of such compounds with different modes of action have been reported so far. In this review article, the main approaches on how to target cancer cell mitosis are described, involving microtubule inhibition, targeting aurora and polo-like kinases and kinesins inhibition. The main representatives of all groups of compounds are discussed and attention has also been paid to the presence and future of the clinical use of these compounds as well as their novel derivatives, reviewing the finished and ongoing clinical trials.

An Easy and Efficient Strategy for the Enhancement of Epothilone Production Mediated by TALE-TF and CRISPR/dcas9 Systems in Sorangium cellulosum

Epothilones are a kind of macrolides with strong cytotoxicity toward cancer cells and relatively lower side effects compared with taxol. Epothilone B derivate ixabepilone has been used for the clinical treatment of advanced breast cancer. However, the low yield of epothilones and the difficulty in the genetic manipulation of Sorangium cellulosum limited their wider application. Transcription activator-like effectors-Trancriptional factor (TALE-TF)-VP64 and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/dCas9-VP64 have been demonstrated as effective systems for the transcriptional improvement. In this study, a promoter for the epothilone biosynthesis cluster was obtained and the function has been verified. The TALE-TF-VP64 and CRISPR/dcas9-VP64 target P3 promoter were electroporated into S. cellulosum strain So ce M4, and the transcriptional levels of epothilone biosynthesis-related genes were significantly upregulated. The yield of epothilone B was improved by 2.89- and 1.53-fold by the introduction of recombinant TALE-TF-VP64-P3 and dCas9-VP64-P3 elements into So ce M4, respectively. The epothilone D yield was also improved by 1.12- and 2.18-fold in recombinant dCas9-So ce M4 and TALE-VP64 strains, respectively. The transcriptional regulation mechanism of TALE-TF-VP64 and the competition mechanism with endogenous transcriptional factor were investigated by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), demonstrating the combination of the P3 promoter and TALE-TF element and the competition between TALE-TF and endogenous transcriptional protein. This is the first report on the transcriptional regulation of the epothilone biosynthetic gene cluster in S. cellulosum using the TALE-TF and dCas9-VP64 systems, and the regulatory mechanism of the TALE-TF system for epothilone biosynthesis in S. cellulosum was also firstly revealed, thus shedding light on the metabolic engineering of S. cellulosum to improve epothilone yields substantially and promoting the application of epothilones in the biomedical industry.

Comprehensive study of domain rearrangements of single-chain bispecific antibodies to determine the best combination of configurations and microbial host cells

Small bispecific antibodies (bsAbs) are important therapeutic molecules and represent the first bsAb format approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. Diabody (Db), a small bsAb format, has four possible domain orders; we previously reported the differences in the expression levels and cancer growth inhibition effects upon rearranging the domain order of this format. However, there have been no comprehensive reports on domain rearrangements of bispecific single-chain Db (scDb) and tandem single-chain Fv (taFv), which are widely used bsAb formats. In this study, we designed all possible domain orders for scDb and taFv (each with eight variants) with identical Fv pairs and individually expressed all 16 variants using Escherichia coli, Pichia pastoris, and Brevibacillus choshinensis. Comprehensive investigations showed that the intrinsic functions of the variants were similar to each other, regardless of the expression host system, but expression levels varied depending on the format as well as on the host cell. Among the 16 variants, we found a promising candidate that exhibited high activity and productivity. Furthermore, we determined that B. choshinensis is an attractive expression host because of its secretory production of recombinant proteins.

A bacterial negative transcription regulator binding on an inverted repeat in the promoter for epothilone biosynthesis

Background

Microbial secondary metabolism is regulated by a complex and mostly-unknown network of global and pathway-specific regulators. A dozen biosynthetic gene clusters for secondary metabolites have been reported in myxobacteria, but a few regulation factors have been identified.

Results

We identified a transcription regulator Esi for the biosynthesis of epothilones. Inactivation of esi promoted the epothilone production, while overexpression of the gene suppressed the production. The regulation was determined to be resulted from the transcriptional changes of epothilone genes. Esi was able to bind, probably via the N-terminus of the protein, to an inverted repeat sequence in the promoter of the epothilone biosynthetic gene cluster. The Esi-homologous sequences retrieved from the RefSeq database are all of the Proteobacteria. However, the Esi regulation is not universal in myxobacteria, because the esi gene exists only in a few myxobacterial genomes.

Conclusions

Esi binds to the epothilone promoter and down-regulates the transcriptional level of the whole gene cluster to affect the biosynthesis of epothilone. This is the first transcription regulator identified for epothilone biosynthesis.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12934-017-0706-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.