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Hwang J, Ye DY, Jung GY, Jang S. Mobile genetic element-based gene editing and genome engineering: Recent advances and applications. Biotechnol Adv 2024; 72:108343. [PMID: 38521283 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2024.108343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2023] [Revised: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 03/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/25/2024]
Abstract
Genome engineering has revolutionized several scientific fields, ranging from biochemistry and fundamental research to therapeutic uses and crop development. Diverse engineering toolkits have been developed and used to effectively modify the genome sequences of organisms. However, there is a lack of extensive reviews on genome engineering technologies based on mobile genetic elements (MGEs), which induce genetic diversity within host cells by changing their locations in the genome. This review provides a comprehensive update on the versatility of MGEs as powerful genome engineering tools that offers efficient solutions to challenges associated with genome engineering. MGEs, including DNA transposons, retrotransposons, retrons, and CRISPR-associated transposons, offer various advantages, such as a broad host range, genome-wide mutagenesis, efficient large-size DNA integration, multiplexing capabilities, and in situ single-stranded DNA generation. We focused on the components, mechanisms, and features of each MGE-based tool to highlight their cellular applications. Finally, we discussed the current challenges of MGE-based genome engineering and provided insights into the evolving landscape of this transformative technology. In conclusion, the combination of genome engineering with MGE demonstrates remarkable potential for addressing various challenges and advancing the field of genetic manipulation, and promises to revolutionize our ability to engineer and understand the genomes of diverse organisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaeseong Hwang
- School of Interdisciplinary Bioscience and Bioengineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, 77 Cheongam-Ro, Nam-gu, Pohang, Gyeongbuk 37673, Republic of Korea
| | - Dae-Yeol Ye
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, 77 Cheongam-Ro, Nam-gu, Pohang, Gyeongbuk 37673, Republic of Korea
| | - Gyoo Yeol Jung
- School of Interdisciplinary Bioscience and Bioengineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, 77 Cheongam-Ro, Nam-gu, Pohang, Gyeongbuk 37673, Republic of Korea; Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, 77 Cheongam-Ro, Nam-gu, Pohang, Gyeongbuk 37673, Republic of Korea.
| | - Sungho Jang
- Department of Bioengineering and Nano-Bioengineering, Incheon National University, 119 Academy-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 22012, Republic of Korea; Division of Bioengineering, College of Life Sciences and Bioengineering, Incheon National University, 119 Academy-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 22012, Republic of Korea; Research Center for Bio Materials & Process Development, Incheon National University, 119 Academy-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 22012, Republic of Korea.
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Borchert AJ, Bleem AC, Lim HG, Rychel K, Dooley KD, Kellermyer ZA, Hodges TL, Palsson BO, Beckham GT. Machine learning analysis of RB-TnSeq fitness data predicts functional gene modules in Pseudomonas putida KT2440. mSystems 2024; 9:e0094223. [PMID: 38323821 PMCID: PMC10949508 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00942-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/07/2024] [Indexed: 02/08/2024] Open
Abstract
There is growing interest in engineering Pseudomonas putida KT2440 as a microbial chassis for the conversion of renewable and waste-based feedstocks, and metabolic engineering of P. putida relies on the understanding of the functional relationships between genes. In this work, independent component analysis (ICA) was applied to a compendium of existing fitness data from randomly barcoded transposon insertion sequencing (RB-TnSeq) of P. putida KT2440 grown in 179 unique experimental conditions. ICA identified 84 independent groups of genes, which we call fModules ("functional modules"), where gene members displayed shared functional influence in a specific cellular process. This machine learning-based approach both successfully recapitulated previously characterized functional relationships and established hitherto unknown associations between genes. Selected gene members from fModules for hydroxycinnamate metabolism and stress resistance, acetyl coenzyme A assimilation, and nitrogen metabolism were validated with engineered mutants of P. putida. Additionally, functional gene clusters from ICA of RB-TnSeq data sets were compared with regulatory gene clusters from prior ICA of RNAseq data sets to draw connections between gene regulation and function. Because ICA profiles the functional role of several distinct gene networks simultaneously, it can reduce the time required to annotate gene function relative to manual curation of RB-TnSeq data sets. IMPORTANCE This study demonstrates a rapid, automated approach for elucidating functional modules within complex genetic networks. While Pseudomonas putida randomly barcoded transposon insertion sequencing data were used as a proof of concept, this approach is applicable to any organism with existing functional genomics data sets and may serve as a useful tool for many valuable applications, such as guiding metabolic engineering efforts in other microbes or understanding functional relationships between virulence-associated genes in pathogenic microbes. Furthermore, this work demonstrates that comparison of data obtained from independent component analysis of transcriptomics and gene fitness datasets can elucidate regulatory-functional relationships between genes, which may have utility in a variety of applications, such as metabolic modeling, strain engineering, or identification of antimicrobial drug targets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew J. Borchert
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Alissa C. Bleem
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Agile BioFoundry, Emeryville, California, USA
| | - Hyun Gyu Lim
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
- Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California, USA
- Department of Biological Engineering, Inha University, Incheon, Korea
| | - Kevin Rychel
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
| | - Keven D. Dooley
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA
- Agile BioFoundry, Emeryville, California, USA
| | - Zoe A. Kellermyer
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Tracy L. Hodges
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA
- Agile BioFoundry, Emeryville, California, USA
| | - Bernhard O. Palsson
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
- Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, California, USA
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, California, USA
| | - Gregg T. Beckham
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Agile BioFoundry, Emeryville, California, USA
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Bleem A, Kato R, Kellermyer ZA, Katahira R, Miyamoto M, Niinuma K, Kamimura N, Masai E, Beckham GT. Multiplexed fitness profiling by RB-TnSeq elucidates pathways for lignin-related aromatic catabolism in Sphingobium sp. SYK-6. Cell Rep 2023; 42:112847. [PMID: 37515767 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2022] [Revised: 05/21/2023] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 07/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Bioconversion of lignin-related aromatic compounds relies on robust catabolic pathways in microbes. Sphingobium sp. SYK-6 (SYK-6) is a well-characterized aromatic catabolic organism that has served as a model for microbial lignin conversion, and its utility as a biocatalyst could potentially be further improved by genome-wide metabolic analyses. To this end, we generate a randomly barcoded transposon insertion mutant (RB-TnSeq) library to study gene function in SYK-6. The library is enriched under dozens of enrichment conditions to quantify gene fitness. Several known aromatic catabolic pathways are confirmed, and RB-TnSeq affords additional detail on the genome-wide effects of each enrichment condition. Selected genes are further examined in SYK-6 or Pseudomonas putida KT2440, leading to the identification of new gene functions. The findings from this study further elucidate the metabolism of SYK-6, while also providing targets for future metabolic engineering in this organism or other hosts for the biological valorization of lignin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alissa Bleem
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
| | - Ryo Kato
- Department of Materials Science and Bioengineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japan
| | - Zoe A Kellermyer
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
| | - Rui Katahira
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA
| | - Masahiro Miyamoto
- Department of Materials Science and Bioengineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japan
| | - Koh Niinuma
- Department of Materials Science and Bioengineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japan
| | - Naofumi Kamimura
- Department of Materials Science and Bioengineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japan
| | - Eiji Masai
- Department of Materials Science and Bioengineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japan.
| | - Gregg T Beckham
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
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Johnson MS, Venkataram S, Kryazhimskiy S. Best Practices in Designing, Sequencing, and Identifying Random DNA Barcodes. J Mol Evol 2023; 91:263-280. [PMID: 36651964 PMCID: PMC10276077 DOI: 10.1007/s00239-022-10083-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Random DNA barcodes are a versatile tool for tracking cell lineages, with applications ranging from development to cancer to evolution. Here, we review and critically evaluate barcode designs as well as methods of barcode sequencing and initial processing of barcode data. We first demonstrate how various barcode design decisions affect data quality and propose a new design that balances all considerations that we are currently aware of. We then discuss various options for the preparation of barcode sequencing libraries, including inline indices and Unique Molecular Identifiers (UMIs). Finally, we test the performance of several established and new bioinformatic pipelines for the extraction of barcodes from raw sequencing reads and for error correction. We find that both alignment and regular expression-based approaches work well for barcode extraction, and that error-correction pipelines designed specifically for barcode data are superior to generic ones. Overall, this review will help researchers to approach their barcoding experiments in a deliberate and systematic way.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milo S Johnson
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
| | - Sandeep Venkataram
- Department of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Sergey Kryazhimskiy
- Department of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
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Schroer WF, Kepner HE, Uchimiya M, Mejia C, Rodriguez LT, Reisch CR, Moran MA. Functional annotation and importance of marine bacterial transporters of plankton exometabolites. ISME COMMUNICATIONS 2023; 3:37. [PMID: 37185952 PMCID: PMC10130141 DOI: 10.1038/s43705-023-00244-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2022] [Revised: 04/01/2023] [Accepted: 04/14/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Metabolite exchange within marine microbial communities transfers carbon and other major elements through global cycles and forms the basis of microbial interactions. Yet lack of gene annotations and concern about the quality of existing ones remain major impediments to revealing currencies of carbon flux. We employed an arrayed mutant library of the marine bacterium Ruegeria pomeroyi DSS-3 to experimentally annotate substrates of organic compound transporter systems, using mutant growth and compound drawdown analyses to link transporters to their cognate substrates. Mutant experiments verified substrates for thirteen R. pomeroyi transporters. Four were previously hypothesized based on gene expression data (taurine, glucose/xylose, isethionate, and cadaverine/putrescine/spermidine); five were previously hypothesized based on homology to experimentally annotated transporters in other bacteria (citrate, glycerol, N-acetylglucosamine, fumarate/malate/succinate, and dimethylsulfoniopropionate); and four had no previous annotations (thymidine, carnitine, cysteate, and 3-hydroxybutyrate). These bring the total number of experimentally-verified organic carbon influx transporters to 18 of 126 in the R. pomeroyi genome. In a longitudinal study of a coastal phytoplankton bloom, expression patterns of the experimentally annotated transporters linked them to different stages of the bloom, and also led to the hypothesis that citrate and 3-hydroxybutyrate were among the most highly available bacterial substrates. Improved functional annotation of the gatekeepers of organic carbon uptake is critical for deciphering carbon flux and fate in microbial ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- William F Schroer
- Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Hannah E Kepner
- Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
- College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA
| | - Mario Uchimiya
- Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Catalina Mejia
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
| | | | - Christopher R Reisch
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
| | - Mary Ann Moran
- Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
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Borchert AJ, Bleem A, Beckham GT. RB-TnSeq identifies genetic targets for improved tolerance of Pseudomonas putida towards compounds relevant to lignin conversion. Metab Eng 2023; 77:208-218. [PMID: 37059293 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2023.04.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2023] [Revised: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 04/12/2023] [Indexed: 04/16/2023]
Abstract
Lignin-derived mixtures intended for bioconversion commonly contain high concentrations of aromatic acids, aliphatic acids, and salts. The inherent toxicity of these chemicals places a significant bottleneck upon the effective use of microbial systems for the valorization of these mixtures. Pseudomonas putida KT2440 can tolerate stressful quantities of several lignin-related compounds, making this bacterium a promising host for converting these chemicals to valuable bioproducts. Nonetheless, further increasing P. putida tolerance to chemicals in lignin-rich substrates has the potential to improve bioprocess performance. Accordingly, we employed random barcoded transposon insertion sequencing (RB-TnSeq) to reveal genetic determinants in P. putida KT2440 that influence stress outcomes during exposure to representative constituents found in lignin-rich process streams. The fitness information obtained from the RB-TnSeq experiments informed engineering of strains via deletion or constitutive expression of several genes. Namely, ΔgacAS, ΔfleQ, ΔlapAB, ΔttgR::Ptac:ttgABC, Ptac:PP_1150:PP_1152, ΔrelA, and ΔPP_1430 mutants showed growth improvement in the presence of single compounds, and some also exhibited greater tolerance when grown using a complex chemical mixture representative of a lignin-rich chemical stream. Overall, this work demonstrates the successful implementation of a genome-scale screening tool for the identification of genes influencing stress tolerance against notable compounds within lignin-enriched chemical streams, and the genetic targets identified herein offer promising engineering targets for improving feedstock tolerance in lignin valorization strains of P. putida KT2440.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew J Borchert
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA; Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Alissa Bleem
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA; Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Gregg T Beckham
- Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA; Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
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