Heterologous expression of VHb can improve the yield and quality of biocontrol fungus Paecilomyces lilacinus, during submerged fermentation

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.

Improving Hypoxia Adaption Causes Distinct Effects on Growth and Bioactive Compounds Synthesis in an Entomopathogenic Fungus Cordyceps militaris

Cordyceps militaris is an entomopathogenic fungus producing a variety of bioactive compounds. To meet the huge demand for medicinal and edible products, industrialized fermentation of mycelia and cultivation of stromata have been widely developed in China. The content of bioactive metabolites of C. militaris, such as cordycepin, is higher when cultivated on silkworm pupae than on rice or in broth. However, compared with other cultivation methods, C. militaris grows more slowly and accumulates less biomass. The hypoxic environment in pupa hemocoel is one of environmental factor which is not existed in other cultivation methods. It is suggested that hypoxia plays an important role on the growth and the synthesis of bioactive compounds in C. militaris. Here, we demonstrated that the distinct effects on the growth and synthesis of bioactive compounds employing different strategies of improving hypoxia adaption. The introduction of Vitreoscilla hemoglobin enhanced growth, biomass accumulation, and crude polysaccharides content of C. militaris. However, cordycepin production was decreased to 9-15% of the control group. Meanwhile, the yield of adenosine was increased significantly. Nonetheless, when the predicted bHLH transcription factor of sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) was overexpressed in C. militaris to improve the hypoxia adaption of fungal cells, cordycepin content was significantly increased more than two-fold. These findings reveal the role of SREBPs on growth and bioactive compounds synthesis. And it also provides a scientific basis for rationally engineering strains and optimization strategies of air supply in cultivation and fermentation.

Establishment of a new and efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system in the nematicidal fungus Purpureocillium lilacinum

Purpureocillium lilacinum (formerly Paecilomyces lilacinus) is widely commercialized for controlling plant-parasitic nematodes and represents a potential cell factory for enzyme production. This nematicidal fungus is intrinsically resistant to common antifungal agents used for genetic transformation. Therefore, molecular investigations in P. lilacinum are still limited so far. In the present study, we have established a new Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) system in P. lilacinum based on the uridine/uracil auxotrophic mechanism. Here, uridine/uracil auxotrophic mutants were simply generated via UV irradiation instead of a complicated genetic approach for the pyrG gene deletion. A stable uridine/uracil auxotrophic mutant was then selected as a recipient for fungal transformation. We further indicated that the pyrG gene from Aspergillus niger can be used as a selectable marker for genetic transformation of P. lilacinum. Under optimized conditions for ATMT, the transformation efficiency reached 2873 ± 224 transformants per 10⁶ spores. Using the constructed ATMT system, we succeeded in expressing the DsRed reporter gene in P. lilacinum. Additionally, we have identified a very promising mutant for chitinase production from a collection of T-DNA insertion transformants. This mutant possesses a special phenotype of hyper-branching mycelium and produces more conidia in comparison to the wild strain. Conclusively, our ATMT system can be exploited for overexpression of target genes or for T-DNA insertion mutagenesis in the agriculturally important fungus P. lilacinum. The genetic approach in the present work may also be applied for developing similar ATMT systems in other fungi, especially for fungi that their genome databases are currently not available.

Analysis of carotenoid profile changes and carotenogenic genes transcript levels in Rhodosporidium toruloides mutants from an optimized Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation method

Rhodosporidium toruloides has been reported as a potential biotechnological microorganism to produce carotenoids. The most commonly used molecular and genetic manipulation methods based on Agrobacterium-mediated transformation (ATMT). However, this method was of relatively lower transformation efficiency. In this study, we optimized the ATMT method for R. toruloides on account of the promoter on T-DNA, the ratio of A. tumefaciens to R. toruloides NP11, acetosyringone concentration, cocultivation temperature and time, and a transformation efficiency of 2,369 cells per 10⁵ recipient cells was obtained and was 24 times as that of the previous report. With this optimized method, four redder mutants and four yellower mutants were selected out with torularhodin and β-carotene production preference, respectively. The highest torularhodin production was 1,638.15 µg/g dry cell weight in A1-13. The yellower mutants were found to divert the metabolic flux from torularhodin and torulene to γ-carotene and β-carotene, and the proportion of γ-carotene and β-carotene were all over 92%. TAIL-PCR was carried out to found T-DNA insertion in these mutants, and insertion hotspot was found. RT-qPCR results showed that CTA1 genes in these mutants were closely related to the synthesis of total carotenoids, especially torularhodin, and was a potenial metabolic engineering site in the future.

Promotion of the growth and plant biomass degrading enzymes production in solid-state cultures of Lentinula edodes expressing Vitreoscilla hemoglobin gene

Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb), encoded by the Vitreoscilla hemoglobin gene (vgb), is highly effective at binding oxygen and delivering it to both prokaryotes and eukaryotes under hypoxic conditions. In this study, we introduced the vgb gene into shiitake mushrooms, and the mycelia of the transformatants grew faster. In particular, they spread into the solid substrate located in the lower part of the test tubes and bags where the oxygen was hypoxic and produced more β-glucan and plant biomass degrading enzymes compared to the original strain. The maximum growth rate of the transformants was 8.5%-15.9% higher than that of the original strain on sawdust-based cultures in plastic bags. The laccase and amylase activities were 17.7%-40.3% and 16.7%-37.9% higher than that of the original strain, respectively. In addition, the β-glucan contents of the transformant mycelia from the submerged fermentation were 12.9%-24.0% higher than that of the original strain. These results reveal that the expression of VHb in mushroom fungi promots the mycelial growth in solid-state cultures under the hypoxic condition as well as enhances β-glucan and plant biomass degrading enzymes production.

Enhanced hypocrellin production via coexpression of alpha-amylase and hemoglobin genes in Shiraia bambusicola

Shiraia bambusicola is an important and valuable macrofungus and hypocrellins are its main secondary metabolites which have been widely applied in many medical fields. However, during SSF process of this filamentous fungus, use ratio of corn substrate and dissolved oxygen supply are two main limiting factors, which influence production cost, yield and product quality. To solve these problems, overexpressions of amy365-1 and vgb in S. bambusicola were investigated and three overexpression transformants were constructed. Results demonstrated that expressions and coexpression of AMY365-1 and VHb not only increased the productions of biomass, amylase, hypocrellin, but also up-regulated relative expression levels of four central carbon metabolism genes (pdc, ald, acs, acc) and seven hypocrellin biosynthesis genes (fad, mono, zftf, omef, msf, pks, mco). Furthermore, expression of VHb decreased SSF period. When amy365-1 and vgb were coexpressed, relative expression levels of zftf and pks reached their highest levels at 72 h under liquid fermentation, hypocrellin production reached the highest level 75.85 mg/gds which was 2.99-fold compared with wild type strain within 11 days under SSF, and residual starch of solid substrates was decreased from 35.47 to 14.57%.

Improving cellulase production in submerged fermentation by the expression of a Vitreoscilla hemoglobin in Trichoderma reesei

Trichoderma reesei is well known as an industrial workhorse fungus in cellulase production. The low dissolved oxygen supply in the highly viscous medium of T. reesei remains a major bottleneck that hampers growth and cellulase production in submerged fermentation. Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) has been demonstrated to improve metabolism and protein production in different heterologous hosts under hypoxic conditions, but the use of VHb in T. reesei remains uninvestigated. This study examines the effect of VHb in improving T. reesei performance in submerged fermentation. The VHb gene (vgb)-expressing cassette was successfully transformed into the TU-6 strain, integrated into the genome of T. reesei, and functionally expressed with biological activity, which was confirmed by carbon monoxide difference analysis. Compared to the parent strain, the expression of VHb increased the glucose consumption rate of the transformant. Moreover, in cellulase-inducing medium total protein secretion of the VHb expressing strain was 2.2-fold of the parental strain and the filter paper cellulase activity was increased by 58% under oxygen-limiting conditions. In summary, our results demonstrate that VHb has beneficial effects on improving total protein secretion and cellulase activity of T. reesei in submerged fermentation.

Expression of Vitreoscilla hemoglobin enhances production of arachidonic acid and lipids in Mortierella alpina

BACKGROUND

Arachidonic acid (ARA, C20:4, n-6), which belongs to the omega-6 series of polyunsaturated fatty acids and has a variety of biological activities, is commercially produced in Mortierella alpina. Dissolved oxygen or oxygen utilization efficiency is a critical factor for Mortierella alpina growth and arachidonic acid production in large-scale fermentation. Overexpression of the Vitreoscilla hemoglobin gene is thought to significantly increase the oxygen utilization efficiency of the cells.

RESULTS

An optimized Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) gene was introduced into Mortierella alpina via Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. Compared with the parent strain, the VHb-expressing strain, termed VHb-20, grew faster under both limiting and non-limiting oxygen conditions and exhibited dramatic changes in cell morphology. Furthermore, VHb-20 produced 4- and 8-fold higher total lipid and ARA yields than those of the wild-type strain under a microaerobic environment. Furthermore, ARA production of VHb-20 was also 1.6-fold higher than that of the wild type under normal conditions. The results demonstrated that DO utilization was significantly increased by expressing the VHb gene in Mortierella alpina.

CONCLUSIONS

The expression of VHb enhances ARA and lipid production under both lower and normal dissolved oxygen conditions. This study provides a novel strategy and an engineered strain for the cost-efficient production of ARA.

Synergic regulation of redox potential and oxygen uptake to enhance production of coenzyme Q10 in Rhodobacter sphaeroides

The physiological role of Coenzyme Q₁₀ (CoQ₁₀) as an electron carrier suggests its association with redox potential. Overexpression of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase type I (gapA-1) in Rhodobacter sphaeroides elevated the NADH/NAD⁺ ratio and meanwhile enhanced the CoQ₁₀ content by 58%, but at the sacrifice of biomass. On the other hand, Vitreoscilla hemoglobin was heterologously expressed to enhance the oxygen uptake ability of the cells, leading to 127% improvement of biomass. Subsequent coexpression of gapA-1 and vgb resulted in a CoQ₁₀ titer of 83.24mg/L, representing 71% improvement as compared to the control strain RspMCS. When gapA-1 and vgb genes were co-expressed in a previously created strain RspMQd [1], 163.5mg/L of CoQ₁₀ was produced. Finally, 600mg/L of CoQ₁₀ production was achieved in fed-batch fermentation. These results demonstrated the synergic effect of redox potential regulation and oxygen uptake improvement on enhancing CoQ₁₀ production in R. sphaeroides.

Improved biomass and protein production in solid-state cultures of an Aspergillus sojae strain harboring the Vitreoscilla hemoglobin

The biotechnological value of Aspergillus sojae ATCC 20235 (A. sojae) for production of pectinases in solid-state fermentation (SSF) has been demonstrated recently. However, a common drawback of fungal solid-state cultures is the poor diffusion of oxygen into the fungi that limits its growth and biological productivity. The bacterial Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) has favored the metabolism and productivities of various bacterial and yeast strains besides alleviating hypoxic conditions of its native host, but the use of VHb in filamentous fungi still remains poor explored. Based on the known effects of VHb, this study assessed its applicability to improve A. sojae performance in SSF. The VHb gene (vgb) under control of the constitutive Aspergillus nidulants gpdA promoter was introduced into the genome of A. sojae by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Successful fungal transformants were identified by fluorescence microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analyses. In solid-state cultures, the content of protease, exo-polygalacturonase (exo-PG), and exo-polymethylgalacturonase (exo-PMG) of the transformed fungus (A. sojae vgb+) improved were 26, 60, and 44 % higher, respectively, in comparison to its parental strain (A. sojae wt). Similarly, biomass content was also 1.3 times higher in the transformant strain. No significant difference was observed in endo-polygalacturonase (endo-PG) content between both fungal strains, suggesting dissimilar effects of VHb towards different enzymatic productions. Overall, our results show that biomass, protease, and exo-pectinase content of A. sojae in SSF can be improved by transformation with VHb.