Design and synthesis of pathway genes for polyketide biosynthesis

Expression of codon optimized genes in microbial systems: current industrial applications and perspectives

The efficient production of functional proteins in heterologous hosts is one of the major bases of modern biotechnology. Unfortunately, many genes are difficult to express outside their original context. Due to their apparent “silent” nature, synonymous codon substitutions have long been thought to be trivial. In recent years, this dogma has been refuted by evidence that codon replacement can have a significant impact on gene expression levels and protein folding. In the past decade, considerable advances in the speed and cost of gene synthesis have facilitated the complete redesign of entire gene sequences, dramatically improving the likelihood of high protein expression. This technology significantly impacts the economic feasibility of microbial-based biotechnological processes by, for example, increasing the volumetric productivities of recombinant proteins or facilitating the redesign of novel biosynthetic routes for the production of metabolites. This review discusses the current applications of this technology, particularly those regarding the production of small molecules and industrially relevant recombinant enzymes. Suggestions for future research and potential uses are provided as well.

Synthetic biology: an emerging engineering discipline

Over the past decade, synthetic biology has emerged as an engineering discipline for biological systems. Compared with other substrates, biology poses a unique set of engineering challenges resulting from an incomplete understanding of natural biological systems and tools for manipulating them. To address these challenges, synthetic biology is advancing from developing proof-of-concept designs to focusing on core platforms for rational and high-throughput biological engineering. These platforms span the entire biological design cycle, including DNA construction, parts libraries, computational design tools, and interfaces for manipulating and probing synthetic circuits. The development of these enabling technologies requires an engineering mindset to be applied to biology, with an emphasis on generalizable techniques in addition to application-specific designs. This review aims to discuss the progress and challenges in synthetic biology and to illustrate areas where synthetic biology may impact biomedical engineering and human health.

Complex function by design using spatially pre-structured synthetic microbial communities: degradation of pentachlorophenol in the presence of Hg(ii)

Naturally occurring microbes perform a variety of useful functions, with more complex processes requiring multiple functions performed by communities of multiple microbes. Synthetic biology via genetic engineering may be used to achieve desired multiple functions, e.g. multistep chemical and biological transformations, by adding genes to a single organism, but this is sometimes not possible due to incompatible metabolic requirements or not desirable in certain applications, especially in medical or environmental applications. Achieving multiple functions by mixing microbes that have not evolved to function together may not work due to competition of microbes, or lack of interactions among microbes. In nature, microbial communities are commonly spatially structured. Here, we tested whether spatial structure can be used to create a community of microbes that can perform a function they do not perform individually or when simply mixed. We constructed a core-shell fiber with Sphingobium chlorophenolicum, a pentachlorophenol (PCP) degrader, in the core layer and Ralstonia metallidurans, a mercuric ion (Hg(ii)) reducer, in the shell layer as a structured community using microfluidic laminar flow techniques. We applied a mixture of PCP and Hg(ii) to either a simple well-mixed culture broth (i.e. the unstructured community) or the spatially structured core-shell fibers. We found that without spatial structure, the community was unable to degrade PCP in the presence of Hg(ii) because S. chlorophenolicum is sensitive to Hg(ii). In contrast, with spatial structure in a core-shell fiber system, S. chlorophenolicum in a core layer was protected by R. metallidurans deposited in a shell layer, and the community was able to completely remove both PCP and Hg(ii) from a mixture. The appropriate size of the core-shell fiber was determined by the Damköhler number-the timescale of removal of Hg(ii) was on the same order of the timescale of diffusion of Hg(ii) through the outer layer when the shell layer was on the order of ~200 μm. Ultimately, with the ease of a child putting together 'Legos' to build a complex structure, using this approach one may be able to put together microorganisms to build communities that perform functions in vitro or even in vivo, e.g. as in a "microbiome on a pill".

Cloning and characterization of the biosynthetic gene cluster of 16-membered macrolide antibiotic FD-891: involvement of a dual functional cytochrome P450 monooxygenase catalyzing epoxidation and hydroxylation

FD-891 is a 16-membered cytotoxic antibiotic macrolide that is especially active against human leukemia such as HL-60 and Jurkat cells. We identified the FD-891 biosynthetic (gfs) gene cluster from the producer Streptomyces graminofaciens A-8890 by using typical modular type I polyketide synthase (PKS) genes as probes. The gfs gene cluster contained five typical modular type I PKS genes (gfsA, B, C, D, and E), a cytochrome P450 gene (gfsF), a methyltransferase gene (gfsG), and a regulator gene (gfsR). The gene organization of PKSs agreed well with the basic polyketide skeleton of FD-891 including the oxidation states and alpha-alkyl substituent determined by the substrate specificities of the acyltransferase (AT) domains. To clarify the involvement of the gfs genes in the FD-891 biosynthesis, the P450 gfsF gene was inactivated; this resulted in the loss of FD-891 production. Instead, the gfsF gene-disrupted mutant accumulated a novel FD-891 analogue 25-O-methyl-FD-892, which lacked the epoxide and the hydroxyl group of FD-891. Furthermore, the recombinant GfsF enzyme coexpressed with putidaredoxin and putidaredoxin reductase converted 25-O-methyl-FD-892 into FD-891. In the course of the GfsF reaction, 10-deoxy-FD-891 was isolated as an enzymatic reaction intermediate, which was also converted into FD-891 by GfsF. Therefore, it was clearly found that the cytochrome P450 GfsF catalyzes epoxidation and hydroxylation in a stepwise manner in the FD-891 biosynthesis. These results clearly confirmed that the identified gfs genes are responsible for the biosynthesis of FD-891 in S. graminofaciens.