OP-Synthetic: identification of optimal genetic manipulations for the overproduction of native and non-native metabolites

Designing intracellular metabolism for production of target compounds by introducing a heterologous metabolic reaction based on a Synechosystis sp. 6803 genome-scale model

Background

Designing optimal intracellular metabolism is essential for using microorganisms to produce useful compounds. Computerized calculations for flux balance analysis utilizing a genome-scale model have been performed for such designs. Many genome-scale models have been developed for different microorganisms. However, optimal designs of intracellular metabolism aimed at producing a useful compound often utilize metabolic reactions of only the host microbial cells. In the present study, we added reactions other than the metabolic reactions with Synechosystis sp. 6803 as a host to its genome-scale model, and constructed a metabolic model of hybrid cells (SyHyMeP) using computerized analysis. Using this model provided a metabolic design that improves the theoretical yield of succinic acid, which is a useful compound.

Results

Constructing the SyHyMeP model enabled new metabolic designs for producing useful compounds. In the present study, we developed a metabolic design that allowed for improved theoretical yield in the production of succinic acid during glycogen metabolism by Synechosystis sp. 6803. The theoretical yield of succinic acid production using a genome-scale model of these cells was 1.00 mol/mol-glucose, but use of the SyHyMeP model enabled a metabolic design with which a 33 % increase in theoretical yield is expected due to the introduction of isocitrate lyase, adding activations of endogenous tree reactions via D-glycerate in Synechosystis sp. 6803.

Conclusions

The SyHyMeP model developed in this study has provided a new metabolic design that is not restricted only to the metabolic reactions of individual microbial cells. The concept of construction of this model requires only replacement of the genome-scale model of the host microbial cells and can thus be applied to various useful microorganisms for metabolic design to produce compounds.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12934-016-0416-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.