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Liu PY, Li G, Lin CB, Wu JJ, Jiang S, Huang FH, Wan X. Modulating DHA-Producing Schizochytrium sp. toward Astaxanthin Biosynthesis via a Seamless Genome Editing System. ACS Synth Biol 2022; 11:4171-4183. [PMID: 36454215 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.2c00490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Schizochytrium sp. is commercially used for the production of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Some strains of Schizochytrium sp. are also known to produce low amounts of carotenoids, including astaxanthin and β-carotene. In order to enhance the production of astaxanthin in Schizochytrium sp., we established a seamless genome editing system with a dual selection marker for rapid screening of positive transformants. By using this system, we strengthened the endogenous mevalonate pathway, enhanced the supply of geranylgeranyl diphosphate and β-carotene, upregulated endogenous β-carotene hydroxylase, and introduced the algal astaxanthin pathway. The highest astaxanthin production in the engineered Schizochytrium sp. was achieved at 8.1 mg/L (307.1 μg/g dry cell weight) under shake-flask conditions, which was 2.6-fold higher than that in the start strain. Meanwhile, the percentage of DHA to total fatty acids was not obviously affected. We then eliminated the dual selection marker by using the Cre-loxP recombination system, and the engineered strain was ready for iterative editing. The developed system could be applied to seamlessly engineer DHA-producing Schizochytrium sp. toward astaxanthin and other value-added terpenoids, which broadens the application of this strain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peng-Yang Liu
- Oil Crops Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Gang Li
- Oil Crops Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Chu-Bin Lin
- Oil Crops Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Jun-Jie Wu
- Oil Crops Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Shan Jiang
- Oil Crops Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Feng-Hong Huang
- Oil Crops Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.,Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Wuhan 430062, China.,Key Laboratory of Oilseeds processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Wuhan 430062, China
| | - Xia Wan
- Oil Crops Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430062, China.,Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Oil Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Wuhan 430062, China.,Key Laboratory of Oilseeds processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Wuhan 430062, China
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Genome-Based Multi-Antigenic Epitopes Vaccine Construct Designing against Staphylococcus hominis Using Reverse Vaccinology and Biophysical Approaches. Vaccines (Basel) 2022; 10:vaccines10101729. [PMID: 36298594 PMCID: PMC9611379 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10101729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Revised: 10/11/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Staphylococcus hominis is a Gram-positive bacterium from the staphylococcus genus; it is also a member of coagulase-negative staphylococci because of its opportunistic nature and ability to cause life-threatening bloodstream infections in immunocompromised patients. Gram-positive and opportunistic bacteria have become a major concern for the medical community. It has also drawn the attention of scientists due to the evaluation of immune evasion tactics and the development of multidrug-resistant strains. This prompted the need to explore novel therapeutic approaches as an alternative to antibiotics. The current study aimed to develop a broad-spectrum, multi-epitope vaccine to control bacterial infections and reduce the burden on healthcare systems. A computational framework was designed to filter the immunogenic potent vaccine candidate. This framework consists of pan-genomics, subtractive proteomics, and immunoinformatics approaches to prioritize vaccine candidates. A total of 12,285 core proteins were obtained using a pan-genome analysis of all strains. The screening of the core proteins resulted in the selection of only two proteins for the next epitope prediction phase. Eleven B-cell derived T-cell epitopes were selected that met the criteria of different immunoinformatics approaches such as allergenicity, antigenicity, immunogenicity, and toxicity. A vaccine construct was formulated using EAAAK and GPGPG linkers and a cholera toxin B subunit. This formulated vaccine construct was further used for downward analysis. The vaccine was loop refined and improved for structure stability through disulfide engineering. For an efficient expression, the codons were optimized as per the usage pattern of the E coli (K12) expression system. The top three refined docked complexes of the vaccine that docked with the MHC-I, MHC-II, and TLR-4 receptors were selected, which proved the best binding potential of the vaccine with immune receptors; this was followed by molecular dynamic simulations. The results indicate the best intermolecular bonding between immune receptors and vaccine epitopes and that they are exposed to the host’s immune system. Finally, the binding energies were calculated to confirm the binding stability of the docked complexes. This work aimed to provide a manageable list of immunogenic and antigenic epitopes that could be used as potent vaccine candidates for experimental in vivo and in vitro studies.
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Li B, Hou C, Ju X, Feng Y, Ye ZQ, Xiao Y, Gu M, Fu C, Wei C, You C. Gain of Spontaneous clpX Mutations Boosting Motility via Adaption to Environments in Escherichia coli. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2021; 9:772397. [PMID: 34900963 PMCID: PMC8652233 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.772397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2021] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Motility is finely regulated and is crucial to bacterial processes including colonization and biofilm formation. There is a trade-off between motility and growth in bacteria with molecular mechanisms not fully understood. Hypermotile Escherichia coli could be isolated by evolving non-motile cells on soft agar plates. Most of the isolates carried mutations located upstream of the flhDC promoter region, which upregulate the transcriptional expression of the master regulator of the flagellum biosynthesis, FlhDC. Here, we identified that spontaneous mutations in clpX boosted the motility of E. coli largely, inducing several folds of changes in swimming speed. Among the mutations identified, we further elucidated the molecular mechanism underlying the ClpXV78F mutation on the regulation of E. coli motility. We found that the V78F mutation affected ATP binding to ClpX, resulting in the inability of the mutated ClpXP protease to degrade FlhD as indicated by both structure modeling and in vitro protein degradation assays. Moreover, our proteomic data indicated that the ClpXV78F mutation elevated the stability of known ClpXP targets to various degrees with FlhD as one of the most affected. In addition, the specific tag at the C-terminus of FlhD being recognized for ClpXP degradation was identified. Finally, our transcriptome data characterized that the enhanced expression of the motility genes in the ClpXV78F mutations was intrinsically accompanied by the reduced expression of stress resistance genes relating to the reduced fitness of the hypermotile strains. A similar pattern was observed for previously isolated hypermotile E. coli strains showing high expression of flhDC at the transcriptional level. Hence, clpX appears to be a hot locus comparable to the upstream of the flhDC promoter region evolved to boost bacterial motility, and our finding provides insight into the reduced fitness of the hypermotile bacteria.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bingyu Li
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Genome Stability and Disease Prevention, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Energy Genetics, Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Qingdao Engineering Research Center of Biomass Resources and Environment, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China
| | - Chaofan Hou
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Xian Ju
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Yong Feng
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zhi-Qiang Ye
- Lab of Computational Chemistry and Drug Design, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, China
| | - Yunzhu Xiao
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Mingyao Gu
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Genome Stability and Disease Prevention, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Chunxiang Fu
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Energy Genetics, Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Qingdao Engineering Research Center of Biomass Resources and Environment, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China
| | - Chaoliang Wei
- Guangdong Key Laboratory for Genome Stability and Disease Prevention, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Conghui You
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
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Ju C, Zhang M, Guan M, Li S, Zhang Y, Zhao J, Gao X. Fast and efficient generation of a full-length balancer chromosome by a single Cre/loxP recombination event. Mamm Genome 2021; 33:169-180. [PMID: 34386878 DOI: 10.1007/s00335-021-09897-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2021] [Accepted: 07/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Balancer chromosomes, primarily discovered and used in Drosophila melanogaster, are valuable tools to maintain lethal mutations in a particular genomic segment. Full-length balancer chromosomes would be particularly useful because of the capacity to maintain whole genomic traits. However, murine full-length balancer chromosomes generated via a single Cre/loxP recombination are still not demonstrated. In this study, we developed a novel mouse strain with full-length inverted chromosome 17 (Ch17Inv balancer) via a single Cre/loxP recombination event in mES cells. The Ch17Inv balancer mice are viable and phenotypically normal. When bred with other strains, the haplotype of chromosome 17 can be stably maintained as determined by the high throughput SNPs assay. Interestingly, we found that the recombination events were efficiently reduced within the inverted region but not eliminated. The method established in this study can be applied to generate other full-length balancer chromosomes. Moreover, the Ch17Inv balancer strain would be a valuable resource to maintain the entire chromosome 17 from different donor strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cunxiang Ju
- GemPharmatech Co., Ltd., Xuefu Rd. 12#, Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, China.
| | - Mingkun Zhang
- GemPharmatech Co., Ltd., Xuefu Rd. 12#, Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, China
| | - Min Guan
- GemPharmatech Co., Ltd., Xuefu Rd. 12#, Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, China
| | - Song Li
- GemPharmatech Co., Ltd., Xuefu Rd. 12#, Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, China
| | - Yuxi Zhang
- GemPharmatech Co., Ltd., Xuefu Rd. 12#, Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, China
| | - Jing Zhao
- GemPharmatech Co., Ltd., Xuefu Rd. 12#, Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, China
| | - Xiang Gao
- GemPharmatech Co., Ltd., Xuefu Rd. 12#, Jiangbei New Area, Nanjing, China.
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Jia F, Li L, Liu H, Lv P, Shi X, Wu Y, Ling C, Xu F. Development of a rabies virus-based retrograde tracer with high trans-monosynaptic efficiency by reshuffling glycoprotein. Mol Brain 2021; 14:109. [PMID: 34238335 PMCID: PMC8265122 DOI: 10.1186/s13041-021-00821-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Accepted: 07/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Rabies virus (RV) is the most widely used vector for mapping neural circuits. Previous studies have shown that the RV glycoprotein can be a target to improve the retrograde transsynaptic tracing efficiency. However, the current versions still label only a small portion of all presynaptic neurons. Here, we reshuffled the oG sequence, a chimeric glycoprotein, with positive codon pair bias score (CPBS) based on bioinformatic analysis of mouse codon pair bias, generating ooG, a further optimized glycoprotein. Our experimental data reveal that the ooG has a higher expression level than the oG in vivo, which significantly increases the tracing efficiency by up to 12.6 and 62.1-fold compared to oG and B19G, respectively. The new tool can be used for labeling neural circuits Therefore, the approach reported here provides a convenient, efficient and universal strategy to improve protein expression for various application scenarios such as trans-synaptic tracing efficiency, cell engineering, and vaccine and oncolytic virus designs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fan Jia
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, The Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute (BCBDI), Translational Research Center for the Nervous System (TRCNS), Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
- Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
- NMPA Key Laboratory for Research and Evaluation of Viral Vector Technology in Cell and Gene Therapy Medicinal Products, Key Laboratory of Quality Control Technology for Virus-Based Therapeutics, Guangdong Provincial Medical Products Administration, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Viral Vectors for Biomedicine, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
| | - Li Li
- State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems,, Wuhan Center for Magnetic Resonance, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China
| | - Haizhou Liu
- Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China
| | - Pei Lv
- State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems,, Wuhan Center for Magnetic Resonance, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China
| | - Xiangwei Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems,, Wuhan Center for Magnetic Resonance, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Yang Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems,, Wuhan Center for Magnetic Resonance, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China
| | - Chen Ling
- Division of Molecular and Cellular Therapy, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Fuqiang Xu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, The Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute (BCBDI), Translational Research Center for the Nervous System (TRCNS), Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
- Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
- NMPA Key Laboratory for Research and Evaluation of Viral Vector Technology in Cell and Gene Therapy Medicinal Products, Key Laboratory of Quality Control Technology for Virus-Based Therapeutics, Guangdong Provincial Medical Products Administration, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Viral Vectors for Biomedicine, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
- State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems,, Wuhan Center for Magnetic Resonance, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China.
- Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.
- Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China.
- Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China.
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Soluble Expression and Catalytic Properties of Codon-Optimized Recombinant Bromelain from MD2 Pineapple in Escherichia coli. Protein J 2021; 40:406-418. [PMID: 33713245 DOI: 10.1007/s10930-021-09974-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/03/2021] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Bromelain, a member of cysteine proteases, is found abundantly in pineapple (Ananas comosus), and it has a myriad of versatile applications. However, attempts to produce recombinant bromelain for commercialization purposes are challenging due to its expressibility and solubility. This study aims to express recombinant fruit bromelain from MD2 pineapple (MD2Bro; accession no: OAY85858.1) in soluble and active forms using Escherichia coli host cell. The gene encoding MD2Bro was codon-optimized, synthesized, and subsequently ligated into pET-32b( +) for further transformation into Escherichia coli BL21-CodonPlus(DE3). Under this strategy, the expressed MD2Bro was in a fusion form with thioredoxin (Trx) tag at its N-terminal (Trx-MD2Bro). The result showed that Trx-MD2Bro was successfully expressed in fully soluble form. The protein was successfully purified using single-step Ni2+-NTA chromatography and confirmed to be in proper folds based on the circular dichroism spectroscopy analysis. The purified Trx-MD2Bro was confirmed to be catalytically active against N-carbobenzoxyglycine p-nitrophenyl ester (N-CBZ-Gly-pNP) with a specific activity of 6.13 ± 0.01 U mg-1 and inhibited by a cysteine protease inhibitor, E-64 (IC50 of 74.38 ± 1.65 nM). Furthermore, the catalytic efficiency (kcat/KM) Trx-MD2Bro was calculated to be at 5.64 ± 0.02 × 10-2 µM-1 s-1 while the optimum temperature and pH were at 50 °C and pH 6.0, respectively. Furthermore, the catalytic activity of Trx-MD2Bro was also affected by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or metal ions. Altogether it is proposed that the combination of codon optimization and the use of an appropriate vector are important in the production of a soluble and actively stable recombinant bromelain.
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