Co-factor engineering in lactobacilli: effects of uncoupled ATPase activity on metabolic fluxes in Lactobacillus (L.) plantarum and L. sakei

Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of 5-aminolevulinic acid based on combined metabolic pathway modification and reporter-guided mutant selection (RGMS)

BACKGROUND

5-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA) recently received much attention due to its potential application in many fields such as medicine, nutrition and agriculture. Metabolic engineering is an efficient strategy to improve microbial production of 5-ALA.

RESULTS

In this study, an ALA production strain of Escherichia coli was constructed by rational metabolic engineering and stepwise improvement. A metabolic strategy to produce ALA directly from glucose in this recombinant E. coli via both C4 and C5 pathways was applied herein. The expression of a modified hemARS gene and rational metabolic engineering by gene knockouts significantly improved ALA production from 765.9 to 2056.1 mg/L. Next, we tried to improve ALA production by RGMS-directed evolution of eamA gene. After RGMS, the ALA yield of strain A2-ASK reached 2471.3 mg/L in flask. Then, we aimed to improve the oxidation resistance of cells by overexpressing sodB and katE genes and ALA yield reached 2703.8 mg/L. A final attempt is to replace original promoter of hemB gene in genome with a weaker one to decrease its expression. After 24 h cultivation, a high ALA yield of 19.02 g/L was achieved by 108-ASK in a 5 L fermenter.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggested that an industrially competitive strain can be efficiently developed by metabolic engineering based on combined rational modification and optimization of gene expression.

Enforcing ATP hydrolysis enhanced anaerobic glycolysis and promoted solvent production in Clostridium acetobutylicum

Background

The intracellular ATP level is an indicator of cellular energy state and plays a critical role in regulating cellular metabolism. Depletion of intracellular ATP in (facultative) aerobes can enhance glycolysis, thereby promoting end product formation. In the present study, we examined this s trategy in anaerobic ABE (acetone-butanol-ethanol) fermentation using Clostridium acetobutylicum DSM 1731.

Results

Following overexpression of atpAGD encoding the subunits of water-soluble, ATP-hydrolyzing F₁-ATPase, the intracellular ATP level of 1731(pITF₁) was significantly reduced compared to control 1731(pIMP1) over the entire batch fermentation. The glucose uptake was markedly enhanced, achieving a 78.8% increase of volumetric glucose utilization rate during the first 18 h. In addition, an early onset of acid re-assimilation and solventogenesis in concomitant with the decreased intracellular ATP level was evident. Consequently, the total solvent production was significantly improved with remarkable increases in yield (14.5%), titer (9.9%) and productivity (5.3%). Further genome-scale metabolic modeling revealed that many metabolic fluxes in 1731(pITF₁) were significantly elevated compared to 1731(pIMP1) in acidogenic phase, including those from glycolysis, tricarboxylic cycle, and pyruvate metabolism; this indicates significant metabolic changes in response to intracellular ATP depletion.

Conclusions

In C. acetobutylicum DSM 1731, depletion of intracellular ATP significantly increased glycolytic rate, enhanced solvent production, and resulted in a wide range of metabolic changes. Our findings provide a novel strategy for engineering solvent-producing C. acetobutylicum, and many other anaerobic microbial cell factories.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12934-021-01639-7.

Effects of high-level expression of A1-ATPase on H2 production in Thermococcus kodakarensis

The hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis can grow on pyruvate or maltooligosaccharides through H₂ fermentation. H₂ production levels of members of the Thermococcales are high, and studies to improve their production potential have been reported. Although H₂ production is primary metabolism, here we aimed to partially uncouple cell growth and H₂ production of T. kodakarensis. Additional A₁-type ATPase genes were introduced into T. kodakarensis KU216 under the control of two promoters; the strong constitutive cell surface glycoprotein promoter, P_csg, and the sugar-inducible fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase promoter, P_fba. Whereas cells with the A₁-type ATPase genes under the control of P_csg displayed only trace levels of growth, cells with P_fba (strain KUA-PF) displayed growth sufficient for further analysis. Increased levels of A₁-type ATPase protein were detected in KUA-PF cells grown on pyruvate or maltodextrin, when compared to the levels in the host strain KU216. The growth and H₂ production levels of strain KUA-PF with pyruvate or maltodextrin as a carbon and electron source were analyzed and compared to those of the host strain KU216. Compared to a small decrease in total H₂ production, significantly larger decreases in cell growth were observed, resulting in an increase in cell-specific H₂ production. Quantification of the substrate also revealed that ATPase overexpression led to increased cell-specific pyruvate and maltodextrin consumptions. The results clearly indicate that ATPase production results in partial uncoupling of cell growth and H₂ production in T. kodakarensis.

Reactions upstream of glycerate-1,3-bisphosphate drive Corynebacterium glutamicum (D)-lactate productivity under oxygen deprivation

We previously demonstrated the simplicity of oxygen-deprived Corynebacterium glutamicum to produce D-lactate, a primary building block of next-generation biodegradable plastics, at very high optical purity by introducing heterologous D-ldhA gene from Lactobacillus delbrueckii. Here, we independently evaluated the effects of overexpressing each of genes encoding the ten glycolytic enzymes on D-lactate production in C. glutamicum. We consequently show that while the reactions catalyzed by glucokinase (GLK), glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), phosphofructokinase (PFK), triosephosphate isomerase (TPI), and bisphosphate aldolase had positive effects on D-lactate productivity by increasing 98, 39, 15, 13, and 10 %, respectively, in 10 h reactions in minimal salts medium, the reaction catalyzed by pyruvate kinase had large negative effect by decreasing 70 %. The other glycolytic enzymes did not affect D-lactate productivity when each of encoding genes was overexpressed. It is noteworthy that all reactions associated with positive effects are located upstream of glycerate-1,3-bisphosphate in the glycolytic pathway. The D-lactate yield also increased by especially overexpressing TPI encoding gene up to 94.5 %. Interestingly, overexpression of PFK encoding gene reduced the yield of succinate, one of the main by-products of D-lactate production, by 52 %, whereas overexpression of GAPDH encoding gene increased succinate yield by 26 %. Overexpression of GLK encoding gene markedly increased the yield of dihydroxyacetone and glycerol by 10- and 5.8-fold in exchange with decreasing the D-lactate yield. The effect of overexpressing glycolytic genes was also evaluated in 80 h long-term reactions. The variety of effects of overexpressing each of genes encoding the ten glycolytic enzymes on D-lactate production is discussed.

Engineering strategies aimed at control of acidification rate of lactic acid bacteria

The ability of lactic acid bacteria to produce lactic acid from various sugars plays an important role in food fermentations. Lactic acid is derived from pyruvate, the end product of glycolysis and thus a fast lactic acid production rate requires a high glycolytic flux. In addition to lactic acid, alternative end products--ethanol, acetic acid and formic acid--are formed by many species. The central role of glycolysis in lactic acid bacteria has provoked numerous studies aiming at identifying potential bottleneck(s) since knowledge about flux control could be important not only for optimizing food fermentation processes, but also for novel applications of lactic acid bacteria, such as cell factories for the production of green fuels and chemicals. With respect to the control and regulation of the fermentation mode, some progress has been made, but the question of which component(s) control the main glycolytic flux remains unanswered.

Genome sequence of the naturally plasmid-free Lactobacillus plantarum strain NC8 (CCUG 61730)

Lactobacillus plantarum is a highly versatile lactic acid bacterium found in various ecological niches, such as fermented vegetable, meat, and dairy products and the gastrointestinal tract. We sequenced the genome of L. plantarum NC8, a naturally plasmid-free strain, which has been used as a model strain in many laboratories worldwide.

Tunable promoters in synthetic and systems biology

Synthetic and systems biologists need standardized, modular and orthogonal tools yielding predictable functions in vivo. In systems biology such tools are needed to quantitatively analyze the behavior of biological systems while the efficient engineering of artificial gene networks is central in synthetic biology. A number of tools exist to manipulate the steps in between gene sequence and functional protein in living cells, but out of these the most straight-forward approach is to alter the gene expression level by manipulating the promoter sequence. Some of the promoter tuning tools available for accomplishing such altered gene expression levels are discussed here along with examples of their use, and ideas for new tools are described. The road ahead looks very promising for synthetic and systems biologists as tools to achieve just about anything in terms of tuning and timing multiple gene expression levels using libraries of synthetic promoters now exist.

Systems biology of lactic acid bacteria: a critical review

Understanding the properties of a system as emerging from the interaction of well described parts is the most important goal of Systems Biology. Although in the practice of Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) physiology we most often think of the parts as the proteins and metabolites, a wider interpretation of what a part is can be useful. For example, different strains or species can be the parts of a community, or we could study only the chemical reactions as the parts of metabolism (and forgetting about the enzymes that catalyze them), as is done in flux balance analysis. As long as we have some understanding of the properties of these parts, we can investigate whether their interaction leads to novel or unanticipated behaviour of the system that they constitute.

There has been a tendency in the Systems Biology community to think that the collection and integration of data should continue ad infinitum, or that we will otherwise not be able to understand the systems that we study in their details. However, it may sometimes be useful to take a step back and consider whether the knowledge that we already have may not explain the system behaviour that we find so intriguing. Reasoning about systems can be difficult, and may require the application of mathematical techniques. The reward is sometimes the realization of unexpected conclusions, or in the worst case, that we still do not know enough details of the parts, or of the interactions between them.

We will discuss a number of cases, with a focus on LAB-related work, where a typical systems approach has brought new knowledge or perspective, often counterintuitive, and clashing with conclusions from simpler approaches. Also novel types of testable hypotheses may be generated by the systems approach, which we will illustrate. Finally we will give an outlook on the fields of research where the systems approach may point the way for the near future.

Functional analysis of the role of CggR (central glycolytic gene regulator) in Lactobacillus plantarum by transcriptome analysis

The level of the central glycolytic gene regulator (CggR) was engineered in Lactobacillus plantarum NC8 and WCFS1 by overexpression and in‐frame mutation of the cggR gene in order to evaluate its regulatory role on the glycolytic gap operon and the glycolytic flux. The repressor role of CggR on the gap operon was indicated through identification of a putative CggR operator and transcriptome analysis, which coincided with decreased growth rate and glycolytic flux when cggR was overexpressed in NC8 and WCFS1. The mutation of cggR did not affect regulation of the gap operon, indicating a more prominent regulatory role of CggR on the gap operon under other conditions than tested (e.g. fermentation of other sugars than glucose or ribose) and when the level of the putative effector molecule FBP is reduced. Interestingly, the mutation of cggR had several effects in NC8, i.e. increased growth rate and glycolytic flux and regulation of genes with functions associated with glycerol and pyruvate metabolism; however, no effects were observed in WCFS1. The affected genes in NC8 are presumably regulated by CcpA, since putative CRE sites were identified in their upstream regions. The interconnection with CggR and CcpA‐mediated control on growth and metabolism needs to be further elucidated.

Enhancement of pyruvate productivity by inducible expression of a F(0)F(1)-ATPase inhibitor INH1 in Torulopsis glabrata CCTCC M202019

The aim of this study is to establish a controllable intracellular ATP content regulation system applied to the enhancement of pyruvate production in Torulopsis glabrata. The INH1 gene, which encodes a F(0)F(1)-ATPase inhibitor from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, was expressed under a copper ion inducible promoter in the pyruvate producer Torulopsis glabrata CCTCC M202019. The resultant strain was designated as T. glabrata INH1. The induction efficiency was measured by the inducible expression of an enhanced green fluorescence protein. The copper inducible INH1 gene could control the intracellular ATP content (24 h) in an extensive range between 0.192 mmol/mg protein and 0.642 mmol/mg protein in a flask culture. With T. glabrataINH1, induction with 30 microM of Cu(2+) at 12 h in a 3 L fermentor improved pyruvate yield from glucose on biomass by 29% and its yield by 20%, respectively.