Application of the CRISPRi system to repress sepF expression in Mycobacterium smegmatis

Bioengineered yeast for preventing age-related diseases

The aging process entails a multifaceted decline in the capacity to restore homeostasis in response to stress. A prevalent characteristic of many age-related diseases is the presence of low-grade chronic inflammation, a risk factor contributing significantly to morbidity and mortality in the elderly population. Specific lifestyle interventions, such as regular physical activity, targeted diet, and supplementation, can delay the accumulation of chronic age-associated conditions by mitigating inflammation processes. Bioengineered yeast-producing compounds with distinctive bioactivities, including anti-inflammatory properties, have the potential to provide rich dietary alternatives for the prevention of age-related diseases. This review highlights recent achievements in engineering effective yeast platforms, namely Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Yarrowia lipolytica, that hold promise in retarding the onset of aging and age-related ailments.

Targeted suppression of MEP pathway genes DXS, IspD and IspF to explore the mycobacterial metabolism and survival

Due to the uniqueness and essentiality of MEP pathway for the synthesis of crucial metabolites- isoprenoids, hopanoids, menaquinone etc. in mycobacterium, enzymes of this pathway are considered promising anti-tubercular drug targets. In the present study we seek to understand the consequences of downregulation of three of the essential genes- DXS, IspD, and IspF of MEP pathway using CRISPRi approach combined with transcriptomics in Mycobacterium smegmatis. Conditional knock down of either DXS or IspD or IspF gene showed strong bactericidal effect and a profound change in colony morphology. Impaired MEP pathway due to downregulation of these genes increased the susceptibility to frontline anti-tubercular drugs. Further, reduced EtBr accumulation in all the knock down strains in the presence and absence of efflux inhibitor indicated altered cell wall topology. Subsequently, transcriptional analysis validated by qRT-PCR of +154DXS, +128IspD, +104IspF strains showed that modifying the expression of these MEP pathway enzymes affects the regulation of mycobacterial core components. Among the DEGs, expression of small and large ribosomal binding proteins (rpsL, rpsJ, rplN, rplX, rplM, rplS, etc), essential protein translocases (secE, secY and infA, infC), transcriptional regulator (CarD and SigB) and metabolic enzymes (acpP, hydA, ald and fabD) were significantly depleted causing the bactericidal effect. However, mycobacteria survived under these damaging conditions by upregulating mostly the genes needed for the repair of DNA damage (DNA polymerase IV, dinB), synthesis of essential metabolites (serB, LeuA, atpD) and those strengthening the cell wall integrity (otsA, murA, D-alanyl-D-alanine dipeptidase etc.).

Identification of anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis agents targeting the interaction of bacterial division proteins FtsZ and SepF

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the deadly diseases caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), which presents a significant public health challenge. Treatment of TB relies on the combination of several anti-TB drugs to create shorter and safer regimens. Therefore, new anti-TB agents working by different mechanisms are urgently needed. FtsZ, a tubulin-like protein with GTPase activity, forms a dynamic Z-ring in cell division. Most of FtsZ inhibitors are designed to inhibit GTPase activity. In Mtb, the function of Z-ring is modulated by SepF, a FtsZ binding protein. The FtsZ/SepF interaction is essential for FtsZ bundling and localization at the site of division. Here, we established a yeast two-hybrid based screening system to identify inhibitors of FtsZ/SepF interaction in M. tuberculosis. Using this system, we found compound T0349 showing strong anti-Mtb activity but with low toxicity to other bacteria strains and mice. Moreover, we have demonstrated that T0349 binds specifically to SepF to block FtsZ/SepF interaction by GST pull-down, fluorescence polarization (FP), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and CRISPRi knockdown assays. Furthermore, T0349 can inhibit bacterial cell division by inducing filamentation and abnormal septum. Our data demonstrated that FtsZ/SepF interaction is a promising anti-TB drug target for identifying agents with novel mechanisms.

Implementation of a mycobacterial CRISPRi platform in Mycobacterium abscessus and demonstration of the essentiality of ftsZMab

Mycobacterium abscessus (Mab) is a highly drug-resistant non-tuberculous mycobacterial species that causes debilitating TB-like pulmonary infections. The lack of genetic tools has hampered characterization of its extensive repertoire of virulence factors, antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, and drug targets. In this study, we evaluated the performance of a mycobacterial single plasmid CRISPRi-dCas9 system optimized for M. tuberculosis and M. smegmatis for inducible gene silencing in Mab. The efficacy of CRISPRi-mediated repression of two antibiotic resistance genes (blaMab, whiB7Mab) and two putative essential genes (ftsZMab,topAMab) was determined by measuring mRNA transcript levels and phenotypic outcomes. While our results support the utility of this mycobacterial CRISPRi dCas9Sth1 single-plasmid platform for inducible silencing of specific target genes in Mab, they also highlighted several caveats and nuances that may warrant species-specific optimization for Mab. We observed overall lower levels of gene repression in Mab including variable silencing of different target genes despite use of PAMs of similar predicted strength. In addition, leaky gene repression in the absence of inducer was noted for some genes but not others. Nonetheless, using CRISPRi we demonstrated the silencing of multiple target genes and validated ftsZMab as an essential gene and promising drug target for the first time.

Rational development of mycobacteria cell factory for advancing the steroid biomanufacturing

Steroidal resource occupies a vital proportion in the pharmaceutical industry attributing to their important therapeutic effects on fertility, anti-inflammatory and antiviral activities. Currently, microbial transformation from phytosterol has become the dominant strategy of steroidal drug intermediate synthesis that bypasses the traditional chemical route. Mycobacterium sp. serve as the main industrial microbial strains that are capable of introducing selective functional modifications of steroidal intermediate, which has become an indispensable platform for steroid biomanufacturing. By reviewing the progress in past two decades, the present paper concentrates mainly on the microbial rational modification aspects that include metabolic pathway editing, key enzymes engineering, material transport pathway reinforcement, toxic metabolic intermediates removal and byproduct reconciliation. In addition, progress on omics analysis and direct genetic manipulation are summarized and classified that may help reform the industrial hosts with more efficiency. The paper provides an insightful present for steroid biomanufacturing especially on the current trends and prospects of mycobacteria.

CRISPR-Based Approaches for Gene Regulation in Non-Model Bacteria

CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) and CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) have become ubiquitous approaches to control gene expression in bacteria due to their simple design and effectiveness. By regulating transcription of a target gene(s), CRISPRi/a can dynamically engineer cellular metabolism, implement transcriptional regulation circuitry, or elucidate genotype-phenotype relationships from smaller targeted libraries up to whole genome-wide libraries. While CRISPRi/a has been primarily established in the model bacteria Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, a growing numbering of studies have demonstrated the extension of these tools to other species of bacteria (here broadly referred to as non-model bacteria). In this mini-review, we discuss the challenges that contribute to the slower creation of CRISPRi/a tools in diverse, non-model bacteria and summarize the current state of these approaches across bacterial phyla. We find that despite the potential difficulties in establishing novel CRISPRi/a in non-model microbes, over 190 recent examples across eight bacterial phyla have been reported in the literature. Most studies have focused on tool development or used these CRISPRi/a approaches to interrogate gene function, with fewer examples applying CRISPRi/a gene regulation for metabolic engineering or high-throughput screens and selections. To date, most CRISPRi/a reports have been developed for common strains of non-model bacterial species, suggesting barriers remain to establish these genetic tools in undomesticated bacteria. More efficient and generalizable methods will help realize the immense potential of programmable CRISPR-based transcriptional control in diverse bacteria.

Charting the landscape of RNA polymerases to unleash their potential in strain improvement

One major mission of microbial cell factory is overproduction of desired chemicals. To this end, it is necessary to orchestrate enzymes that affect metabolic fluxes. However, only modification of a small number of enzymes in most cases cannot maximize desired metabolites, and global regulation is required. Of myriad enzymes influencing global regulation, RNA polymerase (RNAP) may be the most versatile enzyme in biological realm because it not only serves as the workhorse of central dogma but also participates in a plethora of biochemical events. In fact, recent years have witnessed extensive exploitation of RNAPs for phenotypic engineering. While a few impressive reviews showcase the structures and functionalities of RNAPs, this review not only summarizes the state-of-the-art advance in the structures of RNAPs but also points out their enormous potentials in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. This review aims to provide valuable insights for strain improvement.

The archaeal protein SepF is essential for cell division in Haloferax volcanii

In most bacteria, cell division depends on the tubulin homolog FtsZ and other proteins, such as SepF, that form a complex termed the divisome. Cell division also depends on FtsZ in many archaea, but other components of the divisome are unknown. Here, we demonstrate that a SepF homolog plays important roles in cell division in Haloferax volcanii, a halophilic archaeon that is known to have two FtsZ homologs with slightly different functions (FtsZ1 and FtsZ2). SepF co-localizes with both FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 at midcell. Attempts to generate a sepF deletion mutant were unsuccessful, suggesting an essential role. Indeed, SepF depletion leads to severe cell division defects and formation of large cells. Overexpression of FtsZ1-GFP or FtsZ2-GFP in SepF-depleted cells results in formation of filamentous cells with a high number of FtsZ1 rings, while the number of FtsZ2 rings is not affected. Pull-down assays support that SepF interacts with FtsZ2 but not with FtsZ1, although SepF appears delocalized in the absence of FtsZ1. Archaeal SepF homologs lack a glycine residue known to be important for polymerization and function in bacteria, and purified H. volcanii SepF forms dimers, suggesting that polymerization might not be important for the function of archaeal SepF.

Comparative genomic provides insight into the virulence and genetic diversity of Vibrio parahaemolyticus associated with shrimp acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease

Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) is an important shrimp disease of economic importance which causes mass mortality of cultivated penaeid shrimps in Southeast Asian countries, Mexico and South America. This disease was originally caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VP_AHPND) which is reported to harbour a transferable plasmid carrying the virulent PirAB-like toxin genes (pirAB^vp). However, little is known about the pathogenicity of VP_AHPND. To extend our understanding, comparative genomic analyses was performed in this study to identify the genetic differences and to understand the phylogenetic relationship of VP_AHPND strains. Seven Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains (five VP_AHPND strains and two non-VP_AHPND strains) were sequenced and 31 draft genomes of V. parahaemolyticus were retrieved from NCBI database and incorporated into the genomic comparison to elucidate their genomic diversity. The study showed that the genome sizes of the VP_AHPND strains were approximately 5 Mbp. Ten sequence types (STs) were identified among the VP_AHPND strains using in silico-Multilocus Sequence Typing analysis (MLST) and ST 970 was the predominant ST. Phylogenetic analysis based on MLST and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) showed that the VP_AHPND strains were genetically diverse. Based on the comparative genomic analysis, several functional proteins were identified from diiferent categories associated with virulence-related proteins, secretory proteins, conserved domain proteins, transporter proteins, and phage proteins. The CRISPR analysis showed that VP_AHPND strains contained less number of CRISPRs elements than non-VP_AHPND strains while six prophages regions were identified in the genomes, suggested the lack of CRISPR might promote prophage insertion. The genomic information in this study provide improved understanding of the virulence of these VP_AHPND strains.

Comparison of in vitro Susceptibility of Mycobacteria Against PA-824 to Identify Key Residues of Ddn, the Deazoflavin-Dependent Nitroreductase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Objective

PA-824 (Pretomanid), a bicyclic nitroimidazole drug, exhibits significant bactericidal activity toward Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in vitro and in vivo, but not against Mycobacterium smegmatis. Through catalytic bioreduction, deazaflavin-dependent nitroreductase (Ddn) within MTB directly converts PA-824 to potent bactericidal products. This study aimed to identify key MTB Ddn residues involved in PA-824 conversion toward development of in vitro surrogate markers for detection of mycobacterial resistance to PA-824.

Methods

We evaluated in vitro activity of PA-824 toward MTB and nontuberculous mycobacterial species using antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Ddn amino acid sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis revealed putative key enzyme active site residues. Candidate MTB Ddn residues required for PA-824 conversion activity were evaluated for loss-of-function using recombinantly cloned Ddn mutant proteins expressed in Mycobacterium smegmatis.

Results

PA-824 minimum inhibitory concentrations of 90% of bacterial growth (MIC₉₀s) against MTB and Mycobacterium kansasii were 0.12 mg/L and 8 mg/L, respectively, but >32 mg/L for Mycobacterium spp. M. avium, M. intracellulare, M. abscessus and M. fortuitum. MTB Ddn and M. kansasii Ddn homologous sequences shared the greatest similarity (89.3% amino acid identity). M. smegmatis expressing Ddn proteins with Y65L, A76V or Y133F substitutions (but not V75L, Q125K or V148I) were resistant to PA-824.

Conclusion

Our data demonstrated that PA-824 exhibited excellent and moderate levels of in vitro activity against MTB and M. kansasii, respectively. Substitutions of Ddn residues Y65, A76 or Y133 conferred mycobacterial resistance to PA-824.