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Masotti F, Krink N, Lencina N, Gottig N, Ottado J, Nikel PI. Disentangling the Regulatory Response of Agrobacterium tumefaciens CHLDO to Glyphosate for Engineering Whole-Cell Phosphonate Biosensors. ACS Synth Biol 2024; 13:3430-3445. [PMID: 39344999 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.4c00497] [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] [Indexed: 10/01/2024]
Abstract
Phosphonates (PHTs), organic compounds with a stable C-P bond, are widely distributed in nature. Glyphosate (GP), a synthetic PHT, is extensively used in agriculture and has been linked to various human health issues and environmental damage. Given the prevalence of GP, developing cost-effective, on-site methods for GP detection is key for assessing pollution and reducing exposure risks. We adopted Agrobacterium tumefaciens CHLDO, a natural GP degrader, as a host and the source of genetic parts for constructing PHT biosensors. In this bacterial species, the phn gene cluster, encoding the C-P lyase pathway, is regulated by the PhnF transcriptional repressor. We selected the phnG promoter, which displays a dose-dependent response to GP, to build a set of whole-cell biosensors. Through stepwise genetic optimization of the transcriptional cascade, we created a whole-cell biosensor capable of detecting GP in the 0.25-50 μM range in various samples, including soil and water.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fiorella Masotti
- Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBR-CONICET) and Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Santa Fe S2000EZP, Argentina
| | - Nicolas Krink
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby 2800 Kgs, Denmark
| | - Nicolas Lencina
- Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBR-CONICET) and Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Santa Fe S2000EZP, Argentina
| | - Natalia Gottig
- Instituto de Procesos Biotecnológicos y Químicos Rosario (IPROBYQ-CONICET-UNR), Rosario, Santa Fe S2000RLK, Argentina
| | - Jorgelina Ottado
- Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBR-CONICET) and Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Santa Fe S2000EZP, Argentina
| | - Pablo I Nikel
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby 2800 Kgs, Denmark
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2
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Hernández-Sancho JM, Boudigou A, Alván-Vargas MVG, Freund D, Arnling Bååth J, Westh P, Jensen K, Noda-García L, Volke DC, Nikel PI. A versatile microbial platform as a tunable whole-cell chemical sensor. Nat Commun 2024; 15:8316. [PMID: 39333077 PMCID: PMC11436707 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52755-y] [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: 05/08/2024] [Accepted: 09/17/2024] [Indexed: 09/29/2024] Open
Abstract
Biosensors are used to detect and quantify chemicals produced in industrial microbiology with high specificity, sensitivity, and portability. Most biosensors, however, are limited by the need for transcription factors engineered to recognize specific molecules. In this study, we overcome the limitations typically associated with traditional biosensors by engineering Pseudomonas putida for whole-cell sensing of a variety of chemicals. Our approach integrates fluorescent reporters with synthetic auxotrophies within central metabolism that can be complemented by target analytes in growth-coupled setups. This platform enables the detection of a wide array of structurally diverse chemicals under various conditions, including co-cultures of producer cell factories and sensor strains. We also demonstrate the applicability of this versatile biosensor platform for monitoring complex biochemical processes, including plastic degradation by either purified hydrolytic enzymes or engineered bacteria. This microbial system provides a rapid, sensitive, and readily adaptable tool for monitoring cell factory performance and for environmental analyzes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier M Hernández-Sancho
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Arnaud Boudigou
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Maria V G Alván-Vargas
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Dekel Freund
- Institute of Environmental Sciences, Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Jenny Arnling Bååth
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine Interfacial Enzymology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Peter Westh
- Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine Interfacial Enzymology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | | | - Lianet Noda-García
- Institute of Environmental Sciences, Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Daniel C Volke
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
| | - Pablo I Nikel
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
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3
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Chan DTC, Bernstein HC. Pangenomic landscapes shape performances of a synthetic genetic circuit across Stutzerimonas species. mSystems 2024; 9:e0084924. [PMID: 39166875 PMCID: PMC11406997 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.00849-24] [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: 06/28/2024] [Accepted: 07/18/2024] [Indexed: 08/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Engineering identical genetic circuits into different species typically results in large differences in performance due to the unique cellular environmental context of each host, a phenomenon known as the "chassis-effect" or "context-dependency". A better understanding of how genomic and physiological contexts underpin the chassis-effect will improve biodesign strategies across diverse microorganisms. Here, we combined a pangenomic-based gene expression analysis with quantitative measurements of performance from an engineered genetic inverter device to uncover how genome structure and function relate to the observed chassis-effect across six closely related Stutzerimonas hosts. Our results reveal that genome architecture underpins divergent responses between our chosen non-model bacterial hosts to the engineered device. Specifically, differential expression of the core genome, gene clusters shared between all hosts, was found to be the main source of significant concordance to the observed differential genetic device performance, whereas specialty genes from respective accessory genomes were not significant. A data-driven investigation revealed that genes involved in denitrification and components of trans-membrane transporter proteins were among the most differentially expressed gene clusters between hosts in response to the genetic device. Our results show that the chassis-effect can be traced along differences among the most conserved genome-encoded functions and that these differences create a unique biodesign space among closely related species.IMPORTANCEContemporary synthetic biology endeavors often default to a handful of model organisms to host their engineered systems. Model organisms such as Escherichia coli serve as attractive hosts due to their tractability but do not necessarily provide the ideal environment to optimize performance. As more novel microbes are domesticated for use as biotechnology platforms, synthetic biologists are urged to explore the chassis-design space to optimize their systems and deliver on the promises of synthetic biology. The consequences of the chassis-effect will therefore only become more relevant as the field of biodesign grows. In our work, we demonstrate that the performance of a genetic device is highly dependent on the host environment it operates within, promoting the notion that the chassis can be considered a design variable to tune circuit function. Importantly, our results unveil that the chassis-effect can be traced along similarities in genome architecture, specifically the shared core genome. Our study advocates for the exploration of the chassis-design space and is a step forward to empowering synthetic biologists with knowledge for more efficient exploration of the chassis-design space to enable the next generation of broad-host-range synthetic biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dennis Tin Chat Chan
- Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Hans C Bernstein
- Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
- The Arctic Centre for Sustainable Energy, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
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4
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Johno D, Zhang Y, Mohammadi TN, Zhao J, Lin Y, Wang C, Lu Y, Abdelaziz MNS, Maung AT, Lin CY, El-Telbany M, Lwin SZC, Damaso CH, Masuda Y, Honjoh KI, Miyamoto T. Characterization of selected phages for biocontrol of food-spoilage pseudomonads. Int Microbiol 2024; 27:1333-1344. [PMID: 38206524 DOI: 10.1007/s10123-023-00479-2] [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: 07/19/2023] [Revised: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024]
Abstract
Pseudomonas spp., such as P. fluorescens group, P. fragi, and P. putida, are the major psychrophilic spoilage bacteria in the food industry. Bacteriophages (phages) are a promising tool for controlling food-spoilage and food-poisoning bacteria; however, there are few reports on phages effective on food-spoilage bacteria such as Pseudomonas spp. In this study, 12 Pseudomonas phages were isolated from chicken and soil samples. Based on the host range and lytic activity at 30 °C and 4 °C and various combinations of phages, phages vB_PflP-PCS4 and vB_PflP-PCW2 were selected to prepare phage cocktails to control Pseudomonas spp. The phage cocktail consisting of vB_PflP-PCS4 and vB_PflP-PCW2 showed the strongest lytic activity and retarded regrowth of P. fluorescens and P. putida at 30 °C, 8 °C, and 4 °C at a multiplicity of infection of 100. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the genomic DNA indicated that vB_PflP-PCS4 and vB_PflP-PCW2 phages were lytic phages of the Podoviridae family and lacked tRNA, toxin, or virulence genes. A novel endolysin gene was found in the genomic DNA of phage vB_PflP-PCS4. The results of this study suggest that the phage cocktail consisting of vB_PflP-PCS4 and vB_PflP-PCW2 is a promising tool for the biocontrol of psychrophilic food-spoilage pseudomonads during cold storage and distribution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daisuke Johno
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Yu Zhang
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Tahir Noor Mohammadi
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Junxin Zhao
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
- State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330047, China
| | - Yunzhi Lin
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Chen Wang
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Yuan Lu
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Marwa Nabil Sayed Abdelaziz
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Aye Thida Maung
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Chen-Yu Lin
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Mohamed El-Telbany
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Su Zar Chi Lwin
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Catherine Hofilena Damaso
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Yoshimitsu Masuda
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Ken-Ichi Honjoh
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan
| | - Takahisa Miyamoto
- Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-Ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan.
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5
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Nieto-Domínguez M, Sako A, Enemark-Rasmussen K, Gotfredsen CH, Rago D, Nikel PI. Enzymatic synthesis of mono- and trifluorinated alanine enantiomers expands the scope of fluorine biocatalysis. Commun Chem 2024; 7:104. [PMID: 38724655 PMCID: PMC11082193 DOI: 10.1038/s42004-024-01188-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2023] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Fluorinated amino acids serve as an entry point for establishing new-to-Nature chemistries in biological systems, and novel methods are needed for the selective synthesis of these building blocks. In this study, we focused on the enzymatic synthesis of fluorinated alanine enantiomers to expand fluorine biocatalysis. The alanine dehydrogenase from Vibrio proteolyticus and the diaminopimelate dehydrogenase from Symbiobacterium thermophilum were selected for in vitro production of (R)-3-fluoroalanine and (S)-3-fluoroalanine, respectively, using 3-fluoropyruvate as the substrate. Additionally, we discovered that an alanine racemase from Streptomyces lavendulae, originally selected for setting an alternative enzymatic cascade leading to the production of these non-canonical amino acids, had an unprecedented catalytic efficiency in β-elimination of fluorine from the monosubstituted fluoroalanine. The in vitro enzymatic cascade based on the dehydrogenases of V. proteolyticus and S. thermophilum included a cofactor recycling system, whereby a formate dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas sp. 101 (either native or engineered) coupled formate oxidation to NAD(P)H formation. Under these conditions, the reaction yields for (R)-3-fluoroalanine and (S)-3-fluoroalanine reached >85% on the fluorinated substrate and proceeded with complete enantiomeric excess. The selected dehydrogenases also catalyzed the conversion of trifluoropyruvate into trifluorinated alanine as a first-case example of fluorine biocatalysis with amino acids carrying a trifluoromethyl group.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Nieto-Domínguez
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Aboubakar Sako
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | | | | | - Daniela Rago
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Pablo I Nikel
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
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6
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Buson F, Gao Y, Wang B. Genetic Parts and Enabling Tools for Biocircuit Design. ACS Synth Biol 2024; 13:697-713. [PMID: 38427821 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.3c00691] [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] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Synthetic biology aims to engineer biological systems for customized tasks through the bottom-up assembly of fundamental building blocks, which requires high-quality libraries of reliable, modular, and standardized genetic parts. To establish sets of parts that work well together, synthetic biologists created standardized part libraries in which every component is analyzed in the same metrics and context. Here we present a state-of-the-art review of the currently available part libraries for designing biocircuits and their gene expression regulation paradigms at transcriptional, translational, and post-translational levels in Escherichia coli. We discuss the necessary facets to integrate these parts into complex devices and systems along with the current efforts to catalogue and standardize measurement data. To better display the range of available parts and to facilitate part selection in synthetic biology workflows, we established biopartsDB, a curated database of well-characterized and useful genetic part and device libraries with detailed quantitative data validated by the published literature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felipe Buson
- College of Chemical and Biological Engineering & ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FF, U.K
| | - Yuanli Gao
- College of Chemical and Biological Engineering & ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FF, U.K
| | - Baojun Wang
- College of Chemical and Biological Engineering & ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
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7
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Lu C, Wijffels RH, Martins dos Santos VAP, Weusthuis RA. Pseudomonas putida as a platform for medium-chain length α,ω-diol production: Opportunities and challenges. Microb Biotechnol 2024; 17:e14423. [PMID: 38528784 PMCID: PMC10963910 DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.14423] [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: 08/12/2023] [Revised: 01/18/2024] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Medium-chain-length α,ω-diols (mcl-diols) play an important role in polymer production, traditionally depending on energy-intensive chemical processes. Microbial cell factories offer an alternative, but conventional strains like Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae face challenges in mcl-diol production due to the toxicity of intermediates such as alcohols and acids. Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology enable the engineering of non-model strains for such purposes with P. putida emerging as a promising microbial platform. This study reviews the advancement in diol production using P. putida and proposes a four-module approach for the sustainable production of diols. Despite progress, challenges persist, and this study discusses current obstacles and future opportunities for leveraging P. putida as a microbial cell factory for mcl-diol production. Furthermore, this study highlights the potential of using P. putida as an efficient chassis for diol synthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chunzhe Lu
- Bioprocess EngineeringWageningen University & ResearchWageningenThe Netherlands
- Groningen Biomolecular Sciences & Biotechnology InstituteUniversity of GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands
| | - Rene H. Wijffels
- Bioprocess EngineeringWageningen University & ResearchWageningenThe Netherlands
- Faculty of Biosciences and AquacultureNord UniversityBodøNorway
| | | | - Ruud A. Weusthuis
- Bioprocess EngineeringWageningen University & ResearchWageningenThe Netherlands
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8
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Kozaeva E, Nielsen ZS, Nieto-Domínguez M, Nikel P. The pAblo·pCasso self-curing vector toolset for unconstrained cytidine and adenine base-editing in Gram-negative bacteria. Nucleic Acids Res 2024; 52:e19. [PMID: 38180826 PMCID: PMC10899774 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad1236] [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: 04/17/2023] [Revised: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/07/2024] Open
Abstract
A synthetic biology toolkit, exploiting clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and modified CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) base-editors, was developed for genome engineering in Gram-negative bacteria. Both a cytidine base-editor (CBE) and an adenine base-editor (ABE) have been optimized for precise single-nucleotide modification of plasmid and genome targets. CBE comprises a cytidine deaminase conjugated to a Cas9 nickase from Streptococcus pyogenes (SpnCas9), resulting in C→T (or G→A) substitutions. Conversely, ABE consists of an adenine deaminase fused to SpnCas9 for A→G (or T→C) editing. Several nucleotide substitutions were achieved using these plasmid-borne base-editing systems and a novel protospacer adjacent motif (PAM)-relaxed SpnCas9 (SpRY) variant. Base-editing was validated in Pseudomonas putida and other Gram-negative bacteria by inserting premature STOP codons into target genes, thereby inactivating both fluorescent proteins and metabolic (antibiotic-resistance) functions. The functional knockouts obtained by engineering STOP codons via CBE were reverted to the wild-type genotype using ABE. Additionally, a series of induction-responsive vectors was developed to facilitate the curing of the base-editing platform in a single cultivation step, simplifying complex strain engineering programs without relying on homologous recombination and yielding plasmid-free, modified bacterial cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ekaterina Kozaeva
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Zacharias S Nielsen
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Manuel Nieto-Domínguez
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Pablo I Nikel
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
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9
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Putzeys L, Wicke L, Brandão A, Boon M, Pires DP, Azeredo J, Vogel J, Lavigne R, Gerovac M. Exploring the transcriptional landscape of phage-host interactions using novel high-throughput approaches. Curr Opin Microbiol 2024; 77:102419. [PMID: 38271748 PMCID: PMC10884466 DOI: 10.1016/j.mib.2023.102419] [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: 08/14/2023] [Revised: 12/08/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
In the last decade, powerful high-throughput sequencing approaches have emerged to analyse microbial transcriptomes at a global scale. However, to date, applications of these approaches to microbial viruses such as phages remain scarce. Tailoring these techniques to virus-infected bacteria promises to obtain a detailed picture of the underexplored RNA biology and molecular processes during infection. In addition, transcriptome study of stress and perturbations induced by phages in their infected bacterial hosts is likely to reveal new fundamental mechanisms of bacterial metabolism and gene regulation. Here, we provide references and blueprints to implement emerging transcriptomic approaches towards addressing transcriptome architecture, RNA-RNA and RNA-protein interactions, RNA modifications, structures and heterogeneity of transcription profiles in infected cells that will provide guides for future directions in phage-centric therapeutic applications and microbial synthetic biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leena Putzeys
- Department of Biosystems, Laboratory of Gene Technology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Laura Wicke
- Department of Biosystems, Laboratory of Gene Technology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Institute for Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB), Medical Faculty, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Ana Brandão
- Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Maarten Boon
- Department of Biosystems, Laboratory of Gene Technology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Diana P Pires
- Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Joana Azeredo
- Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Jörg Vogel
- Institute for Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB), Medical Faculty, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Würzburg, Germany
| | - Rob Lavigne
- Department of Biosystems, Laboratory of Gene Technology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Milan Gerovac
- Institute for Molecular Infection Biology (IMIB), Medical Faculty, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Würzburg, Germany.
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10
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Stock M, Gorochowski TE. Open-endedness in synthetic biology: A route to continual innovation for biological design. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadi3621. [PMID: 38241375 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi3621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Accepted: 12/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/21/2024]
Abstract
Design in synthetic biology is typically goal oriented, aiming to repurpose or optimize existing biological functions, augmenting biology with new-to-nature capabilities, or creating life-like systems from scratch. While the field has seen many advances, bottlenecks in the complexity of the systems built are emerging and designs that function in the lab often fail when used in real-world contexts. Here, we propose an open-ended approach to biological design, with the novelty of designed biology being at least as important as how well it fulfils its goal. Rather than solely focusing on optimization toward a single best design, designing with novelty in mind may allow us to move beyond the diminishing returns we see in performance for most engineered biology. Research from the artificial life community has demonstrated that embracing novelty can automatically generate innovative and unexpected solutions to challenging problems beyond local optima. Synthetic biology offers the ideal playground to explore more creative approaches to biological design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michiel Stock
- KERMIT & Biobix, Department of Data Analysis and Mathematical Modelling, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Thomas E Gorochowski
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
- BrisEngBio, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol BS8 1TS, UK
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11
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Aljabali AAA, Aljbaly MBM, Obeid MA, Shahcheraghi SH, Tambuwala MM. The Next Generation of Drug Delivery: Harnessing the Power of Bacteriophages. Methods Mol Biol 2024; 2738:279-315. [PMID: 37966606 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3549-0_18] [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] [Indexed: 11/16/2023]
Abstract
The use of biomaterials, such as bacteriophages, as drug delivery vehicles (DDVs) has gained increasing interest in recent years due to their potential to address the limitations of conventional drug delivery systems. Bacteriophages offer several advantages as drug carriers, such as high specificity for targeting bacterial cells, low toxicity, and the ability to be engineered to express specific proteins or peptides for enhanced targeting and drug delivery. In addition, bacteriophages have been shown to reduce the development of antibiotic resistance, which is a major concern in the field of antimicrobial therapy. Many initiatives have been taken to take up various payloads selectively and precisely by surface functionalization of the outside or interior of self-assembling viral protein capsids. Bacteriophages have emerged as a promising platform for the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents, including drugs, genes, and imaging agents. They possess several properties that make them attractive as drug delivery vehicles, including their ability to specifically target bacterial cells, their structural diversity, their ease of genetic manipulation, and their biocompatibility. Despite the potential advantages of using bacteriophages as drug carriers, several challenges and limitations need to be addressed. One of the main challenges is the limited host range of bacteriophages, which restricts their use to specific bacterial strains. However, this can also be considered as an advantage, as it allows for precise and targeted drug delivery to the desired bacterial cells. The use of biomaterials, including bacteriophages, as drug delivery vehicles has shown promising potential to address the limitations of conventional drug delivery systems. Further research is needed to fully understand the potential of these biomaterials and address the challenges and limitations associated with their use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alaa A A Aljabali
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
| | | | - Mohammad A Obeid
- Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan
| | - Seyed Hossein Shahcheraghi
- Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
| | - Murtaza M Tambuwala
- Lincoln Medical School, Brayford Pool Campus, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
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12
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Asin-Garcia E, Garcia-Morales L, Bartholet T, Liang Z, Isaacs F, Martins dos Santos VP. Metagenomics harvested genus-specific single-stranded DNA-annealing proteins improve and expand recombineering in Pseudomonas species. Nucleic Acids Res 2023; 51:12522-12536. [PMID: 37941137 PMCID: PMC10711431 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad1024] [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: 12/09/2022] [Revised: 10/14/2023] [Accepted: 10/30/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023] Open
Abstract
The widespread Pseudomonas genus comprises a collection of related species with remarkable abilities to degrade plastics and polluted wastes and to produce a broad set of valuable compounds, ranging from bulk chemicals to pharmaceuticals. Pseudomonas possess characteristics of tolerance and stress resistance making them valuable hosts for industrial and environmental biotechnology. However, efficient and high-throughput genetic engineering tools have limited metabolic engineering efforts and applications. To improve their genome editing capabilities, we first employed a computational biology workflow to generate a genus-specific library of potential single-stranded DNA-annealing proteins (SSAPs). Assessment of the library was performed in different Pseudomonas using a high-throughput pooled recombinase screen followed by Oxford Nanopore NGS analysis. Among different active variants with variable levels of allelic replacement frequency (ARF), efficient SSAPs were found and characterized for mediating recombineering in the four tested species. New variants yielded higher ARFs than existing ones in Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and expanded the field of recombineering in Pseudomonas taiwanensisand Pseudomonas fluorescens. These findings will enhance the mutagenesis capabilities of these members of the Pseudomonas genus, increasing the possibilities for biotransformation and enhancing their potential for synthetic biology applications. .
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrique Asin-Garcia
- Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen 6708 WE, The Netherlands
- Bioprocess Engineering Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen 6700 AA, The Netherlands
| | - Luis Garcia-Morales
- Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen 6708 WE, The Netherlands
| | - Tessa Bartholet
- Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen 6708 WE, The Netherlands
| | - Zhuobin Liang
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Systems Biology Institute, Yale University, West Haven, CT 06516, USA
| | - Farren J Isaacs
- Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Systems Biology Institute, Yale University, West Haven, CT 06516, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Vitor A P Martins dos Santos
- Laboratory of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen 6708 WE, The Netherlands
- Bioprocess Engineering Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen 6700 AA, The Netherlands
- LifeGlimmer GmbH, Berlin 12163, Germany
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13
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Wu J, Qing H, Ouyang J, Zhou J, Gao Z, Mason CE, Liu Z, Shi T. HiFun: homology independent protein function prediction by a novel protein-language self-attention model. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:bbad311. [PMID: 37649370 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2023] [Revised: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 08/08/2023] [Indexed: 09/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Protein function prediction based on amino acid sequence alone is an extremely challenging but important task, especially in metagenomics/metatranscriptomics field, in which novel proteins have been uncovered exponentially from new microorganisms. Many of them are extremely low homology to known proteins and cannot be annotated with homology-based or information integrative methods. To overcome this problem, we proposed a Homology Independent protein Function annotation method (HiFun) based on a unified deep-learning model by reassembling the sequence as protein language. The robustness of HiFun was evaluated using the benchmark datasets and metrics in the CAFA3 challenge. To navigate the utility of HiFun, we annotated 2 212 663 unknown proteins and discovered novel motifs in the UHGP-50 catalog. We proved that HiFun can extract latent function related structure features which empowers it ability to achieve function annotation for non-homology proteins. HiFun can substantially improve newly proteins annotation and expand our understanding of microorganisms' adaptation in various ecological niches. Moreover, we provided a free and accessible webservice at http://www.unimd.org/HiFun, requiring only protein sequences as input, offering researchers an efficient and practical platform for predicting protein functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Wu
- Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and The School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai , 200241, China
| | - Haipeng Qing
- Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and The School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai , 200241, China
| | - Jian Ouyang
- Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and The School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai , 200241, China
| | - Jiajia Zhou
- Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and The School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai , 200241, China
| | - Zihao Gao
- Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and The School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai , 200241, China
| | | | - Zhichao Liu
- Nonclinical Drug Safety, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ridgefield, Connecticut 06877, United States
| | - Tieliu Shi
- Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, the Institute of Biomedical Sciences and The School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai , 200241, China
- School of Statistics, Key Laboratory of Advanced Theory and Application in Statistics and Data Science-MOE, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center, for Big Data-Based Precision Medicine, Beihang University & Capital Medical University, Beijing 100083, China
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14
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Velazquez Sanchez AK, Klopprogge B, Zimmermann KH, Ignatova Z. Tailored Synthetic sRNAs Dynamically Tune Multilayer Genetic Circuits. ACS Synth Biol 2023; 12:2524-2535. [PMID: 37595156 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.2c00614] [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] [Indexed: 08/20/2023]
Abstract
Predictable and controllable tuning of genetic circuits to regulate gene expression, including modulation of existing circuits or constructs without the need for redesign or rebuilding, is a persistent challenge in synthetic biology. Here, we propose rationally designed new small RNAs (sRNAs) that dynamically modulate gene expression of genetic circuits with a broad range (high, medium, and low) of repression. We designed multiple multilayer genetic circuits in which the variable effector element is a transcription factor (TF) controlling downstream the production of a reporter protein. The sRNAs target TFs instead of a reporter gene, and harnessing the intrinsic RNA-interference pathway in E. coli allowed for a wide range of expression modulation of the reporter protein, including the most difficult to achieve dynamic switch to an OFF state. The synthetic sRNAs are expressed independently of the circuit(s), thus allowing for repression without modifying the circuit itself. Our work provides a frame for achieving independent modulation of gene expression and dynamic and modular control of the multilayer genetic circuits by only including an independent control circuit expressing synthetic sRNAs, without altering the structure of existing genetic circuits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana K Velazquez Sanchez
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Chemistry, University of Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Bjarne Klopprogge
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Chemistry, University of Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Karl-Heinz Zimmermann
- Algebraic Engineering, Institute of Embedded Systems, Hamburg University of Technology, 21073 Hamburg, Germany
| | - Zoya Ignatova
- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Chemistry, University of Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
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15
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Pham NT, Alves J, Sargison FA, Cullum R, Wildenhain J, Fenical W, Butler MS, Mead DA, Duggan BM, Fitzgerald JR, La Clair JJ, Auer M. Nanoscaled Discovery of a Shunt Rifamycin from Salinispora arenicola Using a Three-Color GFP-Tagged Staphylococcus aureus Macrophage Infection Assay. ACS Infect Dis 2023; 9:1499-1507. [PMID: 37433130 PMCID: PMC10425972 DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.3c00049] [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: 01/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/13/2023]
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance has emerged as a global public health threat, and development of novel therapeutics for treating infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria is urgent. Staphylococcus aureus is a major human and animal pathogen, responsible for high levels of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The intracellular survival of S. aureus in macrophages contributes to immune evasion, dissemination, and resilience to antibiotic treatment. Here, we present a confocal fluorescence imaging assay for monitoring macrophage infection by green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged S. aureus as a front-line tool to identify antibiotic leads. The assay was employed in combination with nanoscaled chemical analyses to facilitate the discovery of a new, active rifamycin analogue. Our findings indicate a promising new approach for the identification of antimicrobial compounds with macrophage intracellular activity. The antibiotic identified here may represent a useful addition to our armory in tackling the silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nhan T. Pham
- School
of Biological Sciences, The University of
Edinburgh, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, U.K.
| | - Joana Alves
- The
Roslin Institute, The University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Campus, Midlothian EH25 9RG, U.K.
| | - Fiona A. Sargison
- The
Roslin Institute, The University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Campus, Midlothian EH25 9RG, U.K.
| | - Reiko Cullum
- Center
for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0204, United
States
| | - Jan Wildenhain
- Exscientia
Oxford Science Park, The Schrödinger Building, Oxford Science Park, Oxford OX4 4GE, U.K.
| | - William Fenical
- Center
for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0204, United
States
- Skaggs
School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
| | - Mark S. Butler
- Xenobe Research Institute, P. O. Box 3052, San Diego, California 92163, United States
| | - David A. Mead
- Terra
Bioforge
Inc., 3220 Deming Way
Suite 100, Middleton, Wisconsin 53562, United States
| | - Brendan M. Duggan
- Skaggs
School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093, United States
| | - J. Ross Fitzgerald
- The
Roslin Institute, The University of Edinburgh, Easter Bush Campus, Midlothian EH25 9RG, U.K.
| | - James J. La Clair
- Xenobe Research Institute, P. O. Box 3052, San Diego, California 92163, United States
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University
of California at San Diego, La
Jolla, California 92093-0358, United States
| | - Manfred Auer
- School
of Biological Sciences, The University of
Edinburgh, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, U.K.
- Xenobe Research Institute, P. O. Box 3052, San Diego, California 92163, United States
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16
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Usman SS, Uba AI, Christina E. Bacteriophage genome engineering for phage therapy to combat bacterial antimicrobial resistance as an alternative to antibiotics. Mol Biol Rep 2023; 50:7055-7067. [PMID: 37392288 DOI: 10.1007/s11033-023-08557-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2023] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 07/03/2023]
Abstract
Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that mainly infect bacteria and are ubiquitously distributed in nature, especially to their host. Phage engineering involves nucleic acids manipulation of phage genome for antimicrobial activity directed against pathogens through the applications of molecular biology techniques such as synthetic biology methods, homologous recombination, CRISPY-BRED and CRISPY-BRIP recombineering, rebooting phage-based engineering, and targeted nucleases including CRISPR/Cas9, zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs). Management of bacteria is widely achieved using antibiotics whose mechanism of action has been shown to target both the genetic dogma and the metabolism of pathogens. However, the overuse of antibiotics has caused the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria which account for nearly 5 million deaths as of 2019 thereby posing threats to the public health sector, particularly by 2050. Lytic phages have drawn attention as a strong alternative to antibiotics owing to the promising efficacy and safety of phage therapy in various models in vivo and human studies. Therefore, harnessing phage genome engineering methods, particularly CRISPR/Cas9 to overcome the limitations such as phage narrow host range, phage resistance or any potential eukaryotic immune response for phage-based enzymes/proteins therapy may designate phage therapy as a strong alternative to antibiotics for combatting bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Here, the current trends and progress in phage genome engineering techniques and phage therapy are reviewed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sani Sharif Usman
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, School of Bioengineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar-Delhi G.T. Road, Phagwara, 144401, Punjab, India
- Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Federal University of Kashere, P.M.B. 0182, Gombe, Nigeria
| | - Abdullahi Ibrahim Uba
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul AREL University, 34537, Istanbul, Türkiye
| | - Evangeline Christina
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, School of Bioengineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar-Delhi G.T. Road, Phagwara, 144401, Punjab, India.
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17
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Lammens EM, Putzeys L, Boon M, Lavigne R. Sourcing Phage-Encoded Terminators Using ONT-cappable-seq for SynBio Applications in Pseudomonas. ACS Synth Biol 2023; 12:1415-1423. [PMID: 37092882 PMCID: PMC10204088 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.3c00101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/25/2023]
Abstract
Efficient transcriptional terminators are essential for the performance of genetic circuitry in microbial SynBio hosts. In recent years, several libraries of characterized strong terminators have become available for model organisms such as Escherichia coli. Conversely, terminator libraries for nonmodel species remain scarce, and individual terminators are often ported over from model systems, leading to unpredictable performance in their new hosts. In this work, we mined the genomes of Pseudomonas infecting phages LUZ7 and LUZ100 for transcriptional terminators utilizing the full-length RNA sequencing technique "ONT-cappable-seq" and validated these terminators in three Gram-negative hosts using a terminator trap assay. Based on these results, we present nine terminators for E. coli, Pseudomonas putida, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which outperform current reference terminators. Among these, terminator LUZ7 T50 displays potent bidirectional activity. These data further support that bacteriophages, as evolutionary-adapted natural predators of the targeted bacteria, provide a valuable source of microbial SynBio parts.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Maarten Boon
- Laboratory of Gene
Technology,
Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Rob Lavigne
- Laboratory of Gene
Technology,
Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
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18
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Jurburg SD, Hom EFY, Chatzinotas A. Beyond pathogenesis: Detecting the full spectrum of ecological interactions in the virosphere. PLoS Biol 2023; 21:e3002109. [PMID: 37186573 PMCID: PMC10184920 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002109] [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] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
The public perception of viruses has historically been negative. We are now at a stage where the development of tools to study viruses is at an all-time high, but society's perception of viruses is at an all-time low. The literature regarding viral interactions has been skewed towards negative (i.e., pathogenic) symbioses, whereas viral mutualisms remain relatively underexplored. Viral interactions with their hosts are complex and some non-pathogenic viruses could have potential benefits to society. However, viral research is seldom designed to identify viral mutualists, a gap that merits considering new experimental designs. Determining whether antagonisms, mutualisms, and commensalisms are equally common ecological strategies requires more balanced research efforts that characterize the full spectrum of viral interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie D. Jurburg
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Erik F. Y. Hom
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Biology and Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Research, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi, United States of America
| | - Antonis Chatzinotas
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany
- Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
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19
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Lammens EM, Feyaerts N, Kerremans A, Boon M, Lavigne R. Assessing the Orthogonality of Phage-Encoded RNA Polymerases for Tailored Synthetic Biology Applications in Pseudomonas Species. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24087175. [PMID: 37108338 PMCID: PMC10138996 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24087175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Revised: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The phage T7 RNA polymerase (RNAP) and lysozyme form the basis of the widely used pET expression system for recombinant expression in the biotechnology field and as a tool in microbial synthetic biology. Attempts to transfer this genetic circuitry from Escherichia coli to non-model bacterial organisms with high potential have been restricted by the cytotoxicity of the T7 RNAP in the receiving hosts. We here explore the diversity of T7-like RNAPs mined directly from Pseudomonas phages for implementation in Pseudomonas species, thus relying on the co-evolution and natural adaptation of the system towards its host. By screening and characterizing different viral transcription machinery using a vector-based system in P. putida., we identified a set of four non-toxic phage RNAPs from phages phi15, PPPL-1, Pf-10, and 67PfluR64PP, showing a broad activity range and orthogonality to each other and the T7 RNAP. In addition, we confirmed the transcription start sites of their predicted promoters and improved the stringency of the phage RNAP expression systems by introducing and optimizing phage lysozymes for RNAP inhibition. This set of viral RNAPs expands the adaption of T7-inspired circuitry towards Pseudomonas species and highlights the potential of mining tailored genetic parts and tools from phages for their non-model host.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eveline-Marie Lammens
- Laboratory of Gene Technology, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 21 Box 2462, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Nathalie Feyaerts
- Laboratory of Gene Technology, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 21 Box 2462, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Alison Kerremans
- Laboratory of Gene Technology, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 21 Box 2462, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Maarten Boon
- Laboratory of Gene Technology, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 21 Box 2462, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
| | - Rob Lavigne
- Laboratory of Gene Technology, Department of Biosystems, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 21 Box 2462, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
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20
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Elmore JR, Dexter GN, Baldino H, Huenemann JD, Francis R, Peabody GL, Martinez-Baird J, Riley LA, Simmons T, Coleman-Derr D, Guss AM, Egbert RG. High-throughput genetic engineering of nonmodel and undomesticated bacteria via iterative site-specific genome integration. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eade1285. [PMID: 36897939 PMCID: PMC10005180 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade1285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 02/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Efficient genome engineering is critical to understand and use microbial functions. Despite recent development of tools such as CRISPR-Cas gene editing, efficient integration of exogenous DNA with well-characterized functions remains limited to model bacteria. Here, we describe serine recombinase-assisted genome engineering, or SAGE, an easy-to-use, highly efficient, and extensible technology that enables selection marker-free, site-specific genome integration of up to 10 DNA constructs, often with efficiency on par with or superior to replicating plasmids. SAGE uses no replicating plasmids and thus lacks the host range limitations of other genome engineering technologies. We demonstrate the value of SAGE by characterizing genome integration efficiency in five bacteria that span multiple taxonomy groups and biotechnology applications and by identifying more than 95 heterologous promoters in each host with consistent transcription across environmental and genetic contexts. We anticipate that SAGE will rapidly expand the number of industrial and environmental bacteria compatible with high-throughput genetics and synthetic biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua R. Elmore
- Biological Science Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, USA
| | - Gara N. Dexter
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, One Bethel Valley Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Henri Baldino
- Biological Science Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, USA
| | - Jay D. Huenemann
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, One Bethel Valley Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996,USA
| | - Ryan Francis
- Biological Science Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, USA
| | - George L. Peabody
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, One Bethel Valley Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Jessica Martinez-Baird
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, One Bethel Valley Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Lauren A. Riley
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, One Bethel Valley Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996,USA
| | - Tuesday Simmons
- Plant and Microbial Biology Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94701, USA
| | - Devin Coleman-Derr
- Plant and Microbial Biology Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94701, USA
- Plant Gene Expression Center, USDA-ARS, Albany, CA 94710, USA
| | - Adam M. Guss
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, One Bethel Valley Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Robert G. Egbert
- Biological Science Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99354, USA
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21
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Ye JW, Lin YN, Yi XQ, Yu ZX, Liu X, Chen GQ. Synthetic biology of extremophiles: a new wave of biomanufacturing. Trends Biotechnol 2023; 41:342-357. [PMID: 36535816 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 11/12/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Microbial biomanufacturing, powered by the advances of synthetic biology, has attracted growing interest for the production of diverse products. In contrast to conventional microbes, extremophiles have shown better performance for low-cost production owing to their outstanding growth and synthesis capacity under stress conditions, allowing unsterilized fermentation processes. We review increasing numbers of products already manufactured utilizing extremophiles in recent years. In addition, genetic parts, molecular tools, and manipulation approaches for extremophile engineering are also summarized, and challenges and opportunities are predicted for non-conventional chassis. Next-generation industrial biotechnology (NGIB) based on engineered extremophiles promises to simplify biomanufacturing processes and achieve open and continuous fermentation, without sterilization, and utilizing low-cost substrates, making NGIB an attractive green process for sustainable manufacturing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jian-Wen Ye
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Fermentation and Enzyme Engineering, School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China; Guangdong Research Center of Industrial Enzyme and Green Manufacturing Technology, School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yi-Na Lin
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Fermentation and Enzyme Engineering, School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China; Guangdong Research Center of Industrial Enzyme and Green Manufacturing Technology, School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xue-Qing Yi
- School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
| | - Zhuo-Xuan Yu
- School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China
| | - Xu Liu
- PhaBuilder Biotech Company, Shunyi District, Zhaoquan Ying, Beijing 101309, China
| | - Guo-Qiang Chen
- School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Ministry of Education (MOE) Laboratory of Industrial Biocatalysis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Beijing, China.
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22
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Transcriptomics-Driven Characterization of LUZ100, a T7-like Pseudomonas Phage with Temperate Features. mSystems 2023; 8:e0118922. [PMID: 36794936 PMCID: PMC10134795 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.01189-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Autographiviridae is a diverse yet distinct family of bacterial viruses marked by a strictly lytic lifestyle and a generally conserved genome organization. Here, we characterized Pseudomonas aeruginosa phage LUZ100, a distant relative of type phage T7. LUZ100 is a podovirus with a limited host range which likely uses lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as a phage receptor. Interestingly, infection dynamics of LUZ100 indicated moderate adsorption rates and low virulence, hinting at temperate characteristics. This hypothesis was supported by genomic analysis, which showed that LUZ100 shares the conventional T7-like genome organization yet carries key genes associated with a temperate lifestyle. To unravel the peculiar characteristics of LUZ100, ONT-cappable-seq transcriptomics analysis was performed. These data provided a bird's-eye view of the LUZ100 transcriptome and enabled the discovery of key regulatory elements, antisense RNA, and transcriptional unit structures. The transcriptional map of LUZ100 also allowed us to identify new RNA polymerase (RNAP)-promoter pairs that can form the basis for biotechnological parts and tools for new synthetic transcription regulation circuitry. The ONT-cappable-seq data revealed that the LUZ100 integrase and a MarR-like regulator (proposed to be involved in the lytic/lysogeny decision) are actively cotranscribed in an operon. In addition, the presence of a phage-specific promoter transcribing the phage-encoded RNA polymerase raises questions on the regulation of this polymerase and suggests that it is interwoven with the MarR-based regulation. This transcriptomics-driven characterization of LUZ100 supports recent evidence that T7-like phages should not automatically be assumed to have a strictly lytic life cycle. IMPORTANCE Bacteriophage T7, considered the "model phage" of the Autographiviridae family, is marked by a strictly lytic life cycle and conserved genome organization. Recently, novel phages within this clade have emerged which display characteristics associated with a temperate life cycle. Screening for temperate behavior is of utmost importance in fields like phage therapy, where strictly lytic phages are generally required for therapeutic applications. In this study, we applied an omics-driven approach to characterize the T7-like Pseudomonas aeruginosa phage LUZ100. These results led to the identification of actively transcribed lysogeny-associated genes in the phage genome, pointing out that temperate T7-like phages are emerging more frequent than initially thought. In short, the combination of genomics and transcriptomics allowed us to obtain a better understanding of the biology of nonmodel Autographiviridae phages, which can be used to optimize the implementation of phages and their regulatory elements in phage therapy and biotechnological applications, respectively.
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23
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Improvement of transformation efficiency in hypermucoviscous Klebsiella pneumoniae using citric acid. J Microbiol Methods 2023; 205:106673. [PMID: 36638870 DOI: 10.1016/j.mimet.2023.106673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Revised: 01/06/2023] [Accepted: 01/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Transformation efficiency is very low in hypermucoviscous Kllebsiella pneumoniae owing to high amount of capsular polysaccharide. Here, we propose a method to improve the transformation in hypermucoviscous K. pneumoniae using citric acid. An increased number of recovered transformants was observed in the strains cultured in the presence of citric acid.
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24
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Apjok G, Számel M, Christodoulou C, Seregi V, Vásárhelyi BM, Stirling T, Eszenyi B, Sári T, Vidovics F, Nagrand E, Kovács D, Szili P, Lantos II, Méhi O, Jangir PK, Herczeg R, Gálik B, Urbán P, Gyenesei A, Draskovits G, Nyerges Á, Fekete G, Bodai L, Zsindely N, Dénes B, Yosef I, Qimron U, Papp B, Pál C, Kintses B. Characterization of antibiotic resistomes by reprogrammed bacteriophage-enabled functional metagenomics in clinical strains. Nat Microbiol 2023; 8:410-423. [PMID: 36759752 PMCID: PMC9981461 DOI: 10.1038/s41564-023-01320-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 01/04/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
Functional metagenomics is a powerful experimental tool to identify antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment, but the range of suitable host bacterial species is limited. This limitation affects both the scope of the identified ARGs and the interpretation of their clinical relevance. Here we present a functional metagenomics pipeline called Reprogrammed Bacteriophage Particle Assisted Multi-species Functional Metagenomics (DEEPMINE). This approach combines and improves the use of T7 bacteriophage with exchanged tail fibres and targeted mutagenesis to expand phage host-specificity and efficiency for functional metagenomics. These modified phage particles were used to introduce large metagenomic plasmid libraries into clinically relevant bacterial pathogens. By screening for ARGs in soil and gut microbiomes and clinical genomes against 13 antibiotics, we demonstrate that this approach substantially expands the list of identified ARGs. Many ARGs have species-specific effects on resistance; they provide a high level of resistance in one bacterial species but yield very limited resistance in a related species. Finally, we identified mobile ARGs against antibiotics that are currently under clinical development or have recently been approved. Overall, DEEPMINE expands the functional metagenomics toolbox for studying microbial communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gábor Apjok
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary ,grid.9008.10000 0001 1016 9625Doctoral School of Biology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Mónika Számel
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary ,grid.9008.10000 0001 1016 9625Doctoral School of Biology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Chryso Christodoulou
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Viktória Seregi
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary ,HCEMM-BRC Translational Microbiology Research Group, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Bálint Márk Vásárhelyi
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Tamás Stirling
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary ,grid.9008.10000 0001 1016 9625Doctoral School of Biology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary ,grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory for Health Security, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Bálint Eszenyi
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Tóbiás Sári
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary ,grid.9008.10000 0001 1016 9625Doctoral School of Biology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Fanni Vidovics
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Erika Nagrand
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Dorina Kovács
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Petra Szili
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary ,grid.9008.10000 0001 1016 9625Doctoral School of Multidisciplinary Medical Sciences, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Ildikó Ilona Lantos
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Orsolya Méhi
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Pramod K. Jangir
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary ,grid.9008.10000 0001 1016 9625Doctoral School of Biology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary ,grid.4991.50000 0004 1936 8948Present Address: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Róbert Herczeg
- grid.9679.10000 0001 0663 9479Bioinformatics Research Group, Genomics and Bioinformatics Core Facility, Szentágothai Research Centre, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
| | - Bence Gálik
- grid.9679.10000 0001 0663 9479Bioinformatics Research Group, Genomics and Bioinformatics Core Facility, Szentágothai Research Centre, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary ,grid.48324.390000000122482838Department of Clinical Molecular Biology, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland
| | - Péter Urbán
- grid.9679.10000 0001 0663 9479Bioinformatics Research Group, Genomics and Bioinformatics Core Facility, Szentágothai Research Centre, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
| | - Attila Gyenesei
- grid.9679.10000 0001 0663 9479Bioinformatics Research Group, Genomics and Bioinformatics Core Facility, Szentágothai Research Centre, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary ,grid.48324.390000000122482838Department of Clinical Molecular Biology, Medical University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland
| | - Gábor Draskovits
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Ákos Nyerges
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - Gergely Fekete
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary
| | - László Bodai
- grid.9008.10000 0001 1016 9625Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Nóra Zsindely
- grid.9008.10000 0001 1016 9625Department of Genetics, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Béla Dénes
- grid.432859.10000 0004 4647 7293Veterinary Diagnostic Directorate, National Food Chain Safety Office, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Ido Yosef
- grid.12136.370000 0004 1937 0546Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Udi Qimron
- grid.12136.370000 0004 1937 0546Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
| | - Balázs Papp
- grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary ,grid.481814.00000 0004 0479 9817Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory for Health Security, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary ,HCEMM-BRC Metabolic Systems Biology Lab, Szeged, Hungary
| | - Csaba Pál
- Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary.
| | - Bálint Kintses
- Synthetic and System Biology Unit, Institute of Biochemistry, Biological Research Centre, National Laboratory of Biotechnology, Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Szeged, Hungary. .,HCEMM-BRC Translational Microbiology Research Group, Szeged, Hungary. .,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary.
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25
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Plasmids for Controlled and Tunable High-Level Expression in E. coli. Appl Environ Microbiol 2022; 88:e0093922. [PMID: 36342148 PMCID: PMC9680613 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00939-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Genetic systems for protein overexpression are required tools in microbiological and biochemical research. Ideally, these systems include standardized genetic parts with predictable behavior, enabling the construction of stable expression systems in the host organism.
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26
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Controlling gene expression with deep generative design of regulatory DNA. Nat Commun 2022; 13:5099. [PMID: 36042233 PMCID: PMC9427793 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32818-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2022] [Accepted: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Design of de novo synthetic regulatory DNA is a promising avenue to control gene expression in biotechnology and medicine. Using mutagenesis typically requires screening sizable random DNA libraries, which limits the designs to span merely a short section of the promoter and restricts their control of gene expression. Here, we prototype a deep learning strategy based on generative adversarial networks (GAN) by learning directly from genomic and transcriptomic data. Our ExpressionGAN can traverse the entire regulatory sequence-expression landscape in a gene-specific manner, generating regulatory DNA with prespecified target mRNA levels spanning the whole gene regulatory structure including coding and adjacent non-coding regions. Despite high sequence divergence from natural DNA, in vivo measurements show that 57% of the highly-expressed synthetic sequences surpass the expression levels of highly-expressed natural controls. This demonstrates the applicability and relevance of deep generative design to expand our knowledge and control of gene expression regulation in any desired organism, condition or tissue. Design of de novo synthetic regulatory DNA is a promising avenue to control gene expression in biotechnology and medicine. Here the authors present EspressionGAN, a generative adversarial network that uses genomic and transcriptomic data to generate regulatory sequences.
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27
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De Wannemaeker L, Bervoets I, De Mey M. Unlocking the bacterial domain for industrial biotechnology applications using universal parts and tools. Biotechnol Adv 2022; 60:108028. [PMID: 36031082 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2022.108028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2022] [Revised: 07/29/2022] [Accepted: 08/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Synthetic biology can play a major role in the development of sustainable industrial biotechnology processes. However, the development of economically viable production processes is currently hampered by the limited availability of host organisms that can be engineered for a specific production process. To date, standard hosts such as Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae are often used as starting points for process development since parts and tools allowing their engineering are readily available. However, their suboptimal metabolic background or impaired performance at industrial scale for a desired production process, can result in increased costs associated with process development and/or disappointing production titres. Building a universal and portable gene expression system allowing genetic engineering of hosts across the bacterial domain would unlock the bacterial domain for industrial biotechnology applications in a highly standardized manner and doing so, render industrial biotechnology processes more competitive compared to the current polluting chemical processes. This review gives an overview of a selection of bacterial hosts highly interesting for industrial biotechnology based on both their metabolic and process optimization properties. Moreover, the requirements and progress made so far to enable universal, standardized, and portable gene expression across the bacterial domain is discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lien De Wannemaeker
- Centre for Synthetic Biology (CSB), Ghent University, Coupure links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
| | - Indra Bervoets
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Marjan De Mey
- Centre for Synthetic Biology (CSB), Ghent University, Coupure links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
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28
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Shah SB, Hill AM, Wilke CO, Hockenberry AJ. Generating dynamic gene expression patterns without the need for regulatory circuits. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0268883. [PMID: 35617346 PMCID: PMC9135205 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268883] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2021] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Synthetic biology has successfully advanced our ability to design and implement complex, time-varying genetic circuits to control the expression of recombinant proteins. However, these circuits typically require the production of regulatory genes whose only purpose is to coordinate expression of other genes. When designing very small genetic constructs, such as viral genomes, we may want to avoid introducing such auxiliary gene products while nevertheless encoding complex expression dynamics. To this end, here we demonstrate that varying only the placement and strengths of promoters, terminators, and RNase cleavage sites in a computational model of a bacteriophage genome is sufficient to achieve solutions to a variety of basic gene expression patterns. We discover these genetic solutions by computationally evolving genomes to reproduce desired gene expression time-course data. Our approach shows that non-trivial patterns can be evolved, including patterns where the relative ordering of genes by abundance changes over time. We find that some patterns are easier to evolve than others, and comparable expression patterns can be achieved via different genetic architectures. Our work opens up a novel avenue to genome engineering via fine-tuning the balance of gene expression and gene degradation rates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sahil B. Shah
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States of America
| | - Alexis M. Hill
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States of America
| | - Claus O. Wilke
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States of America
- * E-mail: (COW); (AJH)
| | - Adam J. Hockenberry
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, United States of America
- * E-mail: (COW); (AJH)
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29
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Visnapuu A, Van der Gucht M, Wagemans J, Lavigne R. Deconstructing the Phage-Bacterial Biofilm Interaction as a Basis to Establish New Antibiofilm Strategies. Viruses 2022; 14:v14051057. [PMID: 35632801 PMCID: PMC9145820 DOI: 10.3390/v14051057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2021] [Revised: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The bacterial biofilm constitutes a complex environment that endows the bacterial community within with an ability to cope with biotic and abiotic stresses. Considering the interaction with bacterial viruses, these biofilms contain intrinsic defense mechanisms that protect against phage predation; these mechanisms are driven by physical, structural, and metabolic properties or governed by environment-induced mutations and bacterial diversity. In this regard, horizontal gene transfer can also be a driver of biofilm diversity and some (pro)phages can function as temporary allies in biofilm development. Conversely, as bacterial predators, phages have developed counter mechanisms to overcome the biofilm barrier. We highlight how these natural systems have previously inspired new antibiofilm design strategies, e.g., by utilizing exopolysaccharide degrading enzymes and peptidoglycan hydrolases. Next, we propose new potential approaches including phage-encoded DNases to target extracellular DNA, as well as phage-mediated inhibitors of cellular communication; these examples illustrate the relevance and importance of research aiming to elucidate novel antibiofilm mechanisms contained within the vast set of unknown ORFs from phages.
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30
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Abril AG, Carrera M, Notario V, Sánchez-Pérez Á, Villa TG. The Use of Bacteriophages in Biotechnology and Recent Insights into Proteomics. Antibiotics (Basel) 2022; 11:653. [PMID: 35625297 PMCID: PMC9137636 DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics11050653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2022] [Revised: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 05/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Phages have certain features, such as their ability to form protein-protein interactions, that make them good candidates for use in a variety of beneficial applications, such as in human or animal health, industry, food science, food safety, and agriculture. It is essential to identify and characterize the proteins produced by particular phages in order to use these viruses in a variety of functional processes, such as bacterial detection, as vehicles for drug delivery, in vaccine development, and to combat multidrug resistant bacterial infections. Furthermore, phages can also play a major role in the design of a variety of cheap and stable sensors as well as in diagnostic assays that can either specifically identify specific compounds or detect bacteria. This article reviews recently developed phage-based techniques, such as the use of recombinant tempered phages, phage display and phage amplification-based detection. It also encompasses the application of phages as capture elements, biosensors and bioreceptors, with a special emphasis on novel bacteriophage-based mass spectrometry (MS) applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana G. Abril
- Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15898 Santiago de Compostela, Spain;
- Department of Food Technology, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Marine Research Institute (IIM), 36208 Vigo, Spain;
| | - Mónica Carrera
- Department of Food Technology, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Marine Research Institute (IIM), 36208 Vigo, Spain;
| | - Vicente Notario
- Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA;
| | - Ángeles Sánchez-Pérez
- Sydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia;
| | - Tomás G. Villa
- Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15898 Santiago de Compostela, Spain;
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31
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Ibarra-Chávez R, Hansen MF, Pinilla-Redondo R, Seed KD, Trivedi U. Phage satellites and their emerging applications in biotechnology. FEMS Microbiol Rev 2021; 45:fuab031. [PMID: 34104956 PMCID: PMC8632786 DOI: 10.1093/femsre/fuab031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Accepted: 06/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
The arms race between (bacterio)phages and their hosts is a recognised hot spot for genome evolution. Indeed, phages and their components have historically paved the way for many molecular biology techniques and biotech applications. Further exploration into their complex lifestyles has revealed that phages are often parasitised by distinct types of hyperparasitic mobile genetic elements. These so-called phage satellites exploit phages to ensure their own propagation and horizontal transfer into new bacterial hosts, and their prevalence and peculiar lifestyle has caught the attention of many researchers. Here, we review the parasite-host dynamics of the known phage satellites, their genomic organisation and their hijacking mechanisms. Finally, we discuss how these elements can be repurposed for diverse biotech applications, kindling a new catalogue of exciting tools for microbiology and synthetic biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rodrigo Ibarra-Chávez
- Section of Microbiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mads Frederik Hansen
- Section of Microbiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Rafael Pinilla-Redondo
- Section of Microbiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Kimberley D Seed
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Urvish Trivedi
- Section of Microbiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
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32
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Jones CM, Parrish S, Nielsen DR. Exploiting Polyploidy for Markerless and Plasmid-Free Genome Engineering in Cyanobacteria. ACS Synth Biol 2021; 10:2371-2382. [PMID: 34530614 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.1c00269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Here we describe a universal approach for plasmid-free genome engineering in cyanobacteria that exploits the polyploidy of their chromosomes as a natural counterselection system. Rather than being delivered via replicating plasmids, genes encoding for DNA modifying enzymes are instead integrated into essential genes on the chromosome by allelic exchange, as facilitated by antibiotic selection, a process that occurs readily and with only minor fitness defects. By virtue of the essentiality of these integration sites, full segregation is never achieved, with the strain instead remaining as a merodiploid so long as antibiotic selection is maintained. As a result, once the desired genome modification is complete, removal of antibiotic selection results in the gene encoding for the DNA modifying enzyme to then be promptly eliminated from the population. Proof of concept of this new and generalizable strategy is provided using two different site-specific recombination systems, CRE-lox and DRE-rox, in the fast-growing cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, as well as CRE-lox in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Reusability of the method, meanwhile, is demonstrated by constructing a high-CO2 requiring and markerless Δndh3 Δndh4 ΔbicA ΔsbtA mutant of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002. Overall, this method enables the simple and efficient construction of stable and unmarked mutants in cyanobacteria without the need to develop additional shuttle vectors nor counterselection systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher M. Jones
- Chemical Engineering, School for Engineering Matter, Transport, and Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States
| | - Sydney Parrish
- Chemical Engineering, School for Engineering Matter, Transport, and Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States
| | - David R. Nielsen
- Chemical Engineering, School for Engineering Matter, Transport, and Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States
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33
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Kozaeva E, Volkova S, Matos MRA, Mezzina MP, Wulff T, Volke DC, Nielsen LK, Nikel PI. Model-guided dynamic control of essential metabolic nodes boosts acetyl-coenzyme A-dependent bioproduction in rewired Pseudomonas putida. Metab Eng 2021; 67:373-386. [PMID: 34343699 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2021.07.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Revised: 07/23/2021] [Accepted: 07/29/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Pseudomonas putida is evolutionarily endowed with features relevant for bioproduction, especially under harsh operating conditions. The rich metabolic versatility of this species, however, comes at the price of limited formation of acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) from sugar substrates. Since acetyl-CoA is a key metabolic precursor for a number of added-value products, in this work we deployed an in silico-guided rewiring program of central carbon metabolism for upgrading P. putida as a host for acetyl-CoA-dependent bioproduction. An updated kinetic model, integrating fluxomics and metabolomics datasets in addition to manually-curated information of enzyme mechanisms, identified targets that would lead to increased acetyl-CoA levels. Based on these predictions, a set of plasmids based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and dead CRISPR-associated protein 9 (dCas9) was constructed to silence genes by CRISPR interference (CRISPRi). Dynamic reduction of gene expression of two key targets (gltA, encoding citrate synthase, and the essential accA gene, encoding subunit A of the acetyl-CoA carboxylase complex) mediated an 8-fold increase in the acetyl-CoA content of rewired P. putida. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) was adopted as a proxy of acetyl-CoA availability, and two synthetic pathways were engineered for biopolymer accumulation. By including cell morphology as an extra target for the CRISPRi approach, fully rewired P. putida strains programmed for PHB accumulation had a 5-fold increase in PHB titers in bioreactor cultures using glucose. Thus, the strategy described herein allowed for rationally redirecting metabolic fluxes in P. putida from central metabolism towards product biosynthesis-especially relevant when deletion of essential pathways is not an option.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ekaterina Kozaeva
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Svetlana Volkova
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Marta R A Matos
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Mariela P Mezzina
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Tune Wulff
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Daniel C Volke
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Lars K Nielsen
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark; Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Pablo I Nikel
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
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Fernández-Cabezón L, Cros A, Nikel PI. Spatiotemporal Manipulation of the Mismatch Repair System of Pseudomonas putida Accelerates Phenotype Emergence. ACS Synth Biol 2021; 10:1214-1226. [PMID: 33843192 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.1c00031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
The development of complex phenotypes in industrially relevant bacteria is a major goal of metabolic engineering, which encompasses the implementation of both rational and random approaches. In the latter case, several tools have been developed toward increasing mutation frequencies, yet the precise control of mutagenesis processes in cell factories continues to represent a significant technical challenge. Pseudomonas species are endowed with one of the most efficient DNA mismatch repair (MMR) systems found in the bacterial domain. Here, we investigated if the endogenous MMR system could be manipulated as a general strategy to artificially alter mutation rates in Pseudomonas species. To bestow a conditional mutator phenotype in the platform bacterium Pseudomonas putida, we constructed inducible mutator devices to modulate the expression of the dominant-negative mutLE36K allele. Regulatable overexpression of mutLE36K in a broad-host-range, easy-to-cure plasmid format resulted in a transitory inhibition of the MMR machinery, leading to a significant increase (up to 438-fold) in DNA mutation frequencies and a heritable fixation of mutations in the genome. Following such an accelerated mutagenesis-followed by selection approach, three phenotypes were successfully evolved: resistance to antibiotics streptomycin and rifampicin (either individually or combined) and reversion of a synthetic uracil auxotrophy. Thus, these mutator devices could be applied to accelerate the evolution of metabolic pathways in long-term evolutionary experiments, alternating cycles of (inducible) mutagenesis coupled to selection schemes toward the desired phenotype(s).
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorena Fernández-Cabezón
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Antonin Cros
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Pablo I. Nikel
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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Zelcbuch L, Yitzhaki E, Nissan O, Gidron E, Buchshtab N, Kario E, Kredo-Russo S, Zak NB, Bassan M. Luminescent Phage-Based Detection of Klebsiella pneumoniae: From Engineering to Diagnostics. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2021; 14:347. [PMID: 33918942 PMCID: PMC8069110 DOI: 10.3390/ph14040347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Revised: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Bacteriophages ("phages") infect and multiply within specific bacterial strains, causing lysis of their target. Due to the specific nature of these interactions, phages allow a high-precision approach for therapy which can also be exploited for the detection of phage-sensitive pathogens associated with chronic diseases due to gut microbiome imbalance. As rapid phage-mediated detection assays becoming standard-of-care diagnostic tools, they will advance the more widespread application of phage therapy in a precision approach. Using a conventional method and a new cloning approach to develop luminescent phages, we engineered two phages that specifically detect a disease-associated microbial strain. We performed phage sensitivity assays in liquid culture and in fecal matrices and tested the stability of spiked fecal samples stored under different conditions. Different reporter gene structures and genome insertion sites were required to successfully develop the two nluc-reporter phages. The reporter phages detected spiked bacteria in five fecal samples with high specificity. Fecal samples stored under different conditions for up to 30 days did not display major losses in reporter-phage-based detection. Luminescent phage-based diagnostics can provide a rapid co-diagnostic tool to guide the growing field of phage therapy, particularly for a precision-based approach to chronic diseases treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lior Zelcbuch
- Research Department, BiomX Ltd., Ness Ziona 7414002, Israel; (E.Y.); (O.N.); (E.G.); (N.B.); (E.K.); (S.K.-R.); (N.B.Z.); (M.B.)
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36
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Dai H, Han J, Lichtfouse E. Smarter cures to combat COVID-19 and future pathogens: a review. ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS 2021; 19:2759-2771. [PMID: 33824633 PMCID: PMC8017513 DOI: 10.1007/s10311-021-01224-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2020] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Prevention is better than cure. A milestone of the anthropocene is the emergence of a series of epidemics and pandemics often characterized by the transmission of a pathogen from animals to human in the past two decades. In particular, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has made a profound impact on emergency responding and policy-making in a public health crisis. Classical solutions for controlling the virus, such as travel restrictions, lockdowns, repurposed drugs and vaccines, are socially unpopular and medically limited by the fast mutation and adaptation of the virus. This is exacerbated by microbial resistance to therapeutic drugs and the slowness of vaccine development. In other words, microbial pathogens are somehow 'smarter' and faster than us, thus calling for more intelligent cures to combat future pandemics. Here, we compare therapeutics for COVID-19 such as synthetic drugs, vaccines, antibodies and phages. We present the strength and limitations of antibiotic and antiviral drugs, vaccines, and antibody-based therapeutics. We describe smarter, cheaper and preventive cures such as bacteriophages, food medicine using probiotics and prebiotics, sports, healthy diet, music, yoga, Tai Chi, dance, reading, knitting, cooking and outdoor activities. Some of these preventive cures have been intuitively developed since thousands of years ago, as illustrated by the fascinating similarity of the Chinese characters for 'music' and 'herbal medicine.'
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Affiliation(s)
- Han Dai
- Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049 People’s Republic of China
| | - Jie Han
- Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049 People’s Republic of China
| | - Eric Lichtfouse
- CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Coll France, CEREGE, Aix-Marseille University, 13100 Aix en Provence, France
- State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049 Shaanxi People’s Republic of China
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37
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Genome Sequence of the Bacteriophage CL31 and Interaction with the Host Strain Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032. Viruses 2021; 13:v13030495. [PMID: 33802915 PMCID: PMC8002715 DOI: 10.3390/v13030495] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Revised: 03/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In this study, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the genomic features of the phage CL31 and the infection dynamics with the biotechnologically relevant host strain Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032. Genome sequencing and annotation of CL31 revealed a 45-kbp genome composed of 72 open reading frames, mimicking the GC content of its host strain (54.4%). An ANI-based distance matrix showed the highest similarity of CL31 to the temperate corynephage Φ16. While the C. glutamicum ATCC 13032 wild type strain showed only mild propagation of CL31, a strain lacking the cglIR-cglIIR-cglIM restriction-modification system was efficiently infected by this phage. Interestingly, the prophage-free strain C. glutamicum MB001 featured an even accelerated amplification of CL31 compared to the ∆resmod strain suggesting a role of cryptic prophage elements in phage defense. Proteome analysis of purified phage particles and transcriptome analysis provide important insights into structural components of the phage and the response of C. glutamicum to CL31 infection. Isolation and sequencing of CL31-resistant strains revealed SNPs in genes involved in mycolic acid biosynthesis suggesting a role of this cell envelope component in phage adsorption. Altogether, these results provide an important basis for further investigation of phage-host interactions in this important biotechnological model organism.
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Otero-Muras I, Carbonell P. Automated engineering of synthetic metabolic pathways for efficient biomanufacturing. Metab Eng 2020; 63:61-80. [PMID: 33316374 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2020.11.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2020] [Revised: 11/15/2020] [Accepted: 11/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Metabolic engineering involves the engineering and optimization of processes from single-cell to fermentation in order to increase production of valuable chemicals for health, food, energy, materials and others. A systems approach to metabolic engineering has gained traction in recent years thanks to advances in strain engineering, leading to an accelerated scaling from rapid prototyping to industrial production. Metabolic engineering is nowadays on track towards a truly manufacturing technology, with reduced times from conception to production enabled by automated protocols for DNA assembly of metabolic pathways in engineered producer strains. In this review, we discuss how the success of the metabolic engineering pipeline often relies on retrobiosynthetic protocols able to identify promising production routes and dynamic regulation strategies through automated biodesign algorithms, which are subsequently assembled as embedded integrated genetic circuits in the host strain. Those approaches are orchestrated by an experimental design strategy that provides optimal scheduling planning of the DNA assembly, rapid prototyping and, ultimately, brings forward an accelerated Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle and the overall optimization of the biomanufacturing process. Achieving such a vision will address the increasingly compelling demand in our society for delivering valuable biomolecules in an affordable, inclusive and sustainable bioeconomy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irene Otero-Muras
- BioProcess Engineering Group, IIM-CSIC, Spanish National Research Council, Vigo, 36208, Spain.
| | - Pablo Carbonell
- Institute of Industrial Control Systems and Computing (ai2), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022, Spain.
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