Genome engineering and direct cloning of antibiotic gene clusters via phage ϕBT1 integrase-mediated site-specific recombination in Streptomyces

A CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Large-Fragment Assembly Method for Cloning Genomes and Biosynthetic Gene Cluster

The ability to clone large DNA fragments from genomes is valuable for both basic and applied research, such as the construction of synthetic genomes, and the expression of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for natural product discovery. Here, we report a fast and efficient platform for the direct capture of genome DNAs, by combining CRISPR and Gibson assembly. We demonstrate this method with the ability of cloning large DNA fragments ranging from 30 to 77 kb from various host genomes, achieving a near 100% cloning fidelity for DNA fragments below 50 kb. We next demonstrate this method by the cloning of a 40 kb fragment from Streptomyces ceruleus A3(2), which is rich in BGCs for natural products; and used this method cloning the 40 kb fengycin synthetic gene cluster from B. subtilis 168, encoding for a class of peptides with bioactivity. This method provides efficient and simple opportunities for assembling large DNA constructs from distant sources.

Variable orthogonality of RDF - large serine integrase interactions within the ϕC31 family

Large serine integrases are phage- (or mobile element-) encoded enzymes that catalyse site-specific recombination reactions between a short DNA sequence on the phage genome (attP) and a corresponding host genome sequence (attB), thereby integrating the phage DNA into the host genome. Each integrase has its unique pair of attP and attB sites, a feature that allows them to be used as orthogonal tools for genome modification applications. In the presence of a second protein, the Recombination Directionality Factor (RDF), integrase catalyses the reverse, excisive reaction, generating new recombination sites, attR and attL. In addition to promoting attR x attL reaction, the RDF inhibits attP x attB recombination. This feature makes the directionality of integrase reactions programmable, allowing them to be useful for building synthetic biology devices. In this report, we describe the degree of orthogonality of both integrative and excisive reactions for three related integrases (ϕC31, ϕBT1, and TG1) and their RDFs. Among these, TG1 integrase is the most active, showing near complete recombination in both attP x attB and attR x attL reactions, and the most directional in the presence of its RDF. Our findings show that there is varying orthogonality among these three integrases - RDF pairs: ϕC31 integrase was the least selective, with all three RDFs activating it for attR x attL recombination. Similarly, ϕC31 RDF was the least effective among the three RDFs in promoting the excisive activities of the integrases, including its cognate ϕC31 integrase. ϕBT1 and TG1 RDFs were noticeably more effective than ϕC31 RDF at inhibiting attP x attB recombination by their respective integrases, making them more suitable for building reversible genetic switches. AlphaFold-Multimer predicts very similar structural interactions between each cognate integrase - RDF pair. The binding surface on RDF is much more conserved than the binding surface on integrase, an indication that specificity is determined more by the integrase than the RDF. Overall, the observed weak integrase/RDF orthogonality across the three enzymes emphasizes the need for identifying and characterizing more integrase - RDF pairs. Additionally, the ability of a particular integrase's preferred reaction direction to be controlled to varying degrees by non-cognate RDFs provides a path to tunable, non-binary genetic switches.

Available strategies for improving the biosynthesis of surfactin: a review

Surfactin is an excellent biosurfactant with a wide range of application prospects in many industrial fields. However, its low productivity and high cost have largely limited its commercial applications. In this review, the pathways for surfactin synthesis in Bacillus strains are summarized and discussed. Further, the latest strategies for improving surfactin production, including: medium optimization, genome engineering methods (rational genetic engineering, genome reduction, and genome shuffling), heterologous synthesis, and the use of synthetic biology combined with metabolic engineering approaches to construct high-quality artificial cells for surfactin production using xylose, are described. Finally, the prospects for improving surfactin synthesis are discussed in detail.

An efficient method for targeted cloning of large DNA fragments from Streptomyces

Cloning of large DNA fragments from microorganisms becomes increasingly important but remains seriously challenging due to the complexity and diversity of genetic background. In particular, the methods with high precision and efficiency are in great need for obtaining intact biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) of microbial natural products. Here, we report a new strategy for targeted cloning of large DNA fragments (TCLD) from different bacteria. Using this method, precise cloning of desired E. coli chromosomal fragments up to 201 kb was achieved with 53% positive rate. Moreover, its application in cloning of large BGCs with high G + C content and multiple repetitive sequences was also demonstrated, including the 98 kb tylosin BGC (tyl), 128 kb daptomycin BGC (dpt), and 127 kb salinomycin BGC (sal). Subsequently, heterologous expression of the cloned tyl BGC in Streptomyces coelicolor M1146 led to the production of tylosins in the resulting recombinant strains. And also, its introduction into Streptomyces fradiae ATCC 19609, a native producer of tylosin, effectively increased tylosin yield to 230%. Hence, TCLD is a powerful tool for cloning large BGCs and would facilitate the discovery of bioactive substances from microbial resources. KEY POINTS: • TCLD is an efficient method for cloning large DNA fragments. • Repeat sequence-mediated intra-molecular cyclization improves the cloning efficiency. • TCLD combined with scarless editing allows unlimited modifications on BGCs.

Advances in mining and expressing microbial biosynthetic gene clusters

Natural products (NPs) especially the secondary metabolites originated from microbes exhibit great importance in biomedical, industrial and agricultural applications. However, mining biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) to produce novel NPs has been hindered owing that a large population of environmental microbes are unculturable. In the past decade, strategies to explore BGCs directly from (meta)genomes have been established along with the fast development of high-throughput sequencing technologies and the powerful bioinformatics data-processing tools, which greatly expedited the exploitations of novel BGCs from unculturable microbes including the extremophilic microbes. In this review, we firstly summarized the popular bioinformatics tools and databases available to mine novel BGCs from (meta)genomes based on either pure cultures or pristine environmental samples. Noticeably, approaches rooted from machine learning and deep learning with focuses on the prediction of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) were dramatically increased in recent years. Moreover, synthetic biology techniques to express the novel BGCs in culturable native microbes or heterologous hosts were introduced. This working pipeline including the discovery and biosynthesis of novel NPs will greatly advance the exploitations of the abundant but unexplored microbial BGCs.

Iterative Methylation Leads to 3-Methylchuangxinmycin Production in Actinoplanes tsinanensis CPCC 200056

A new congener of chuangxinmycin (CM) was identified from Actinoplanes tsinanensis CPCC 200056. Its structure was determined as 3-methylchuangxinmycin (MCM) by 1D and 2D NMR. MCM could be generated in vivo from CM by heterologous expression of the vitamin B₁₂-dependent radical SAM enzyme CxnA/A₁ responsible for methylation of 3-demethylchuangxinmycin (DCM) in CM biosynthesis, indicating that CxnA/A₁ could perform iterative methylation for MCM production. In vitro assays revealed significant activities of CM, DCM, and MCM against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and clinically isolated isoniazid/rifampin-resistant M. tuberculosis, suggesting that CM and its derivatives may have potential for antituberculosis drug development.

Genetically engineered bacterium: Principles, practices, and prospects

Advances in synthetic biology and the clinical application of bacteriotherapy enable the use of genetically engineered bacteria (GEB) to combat various diseases. GEB act as a small ‘machine factory’ in the intestine or other tissues to continuously produce heterologous proteins or molecular compounds and, thus, diagnose or cure disease or work as an adjuvant reagent for disease treatment by regulating the immune system. Although the achievements of GEBs in the treatment or adjuvant therapy of diseases are promising, the practical implementation of this new therapeutic modality remains a grand challenge, especially at the initial stage. In this review, we introduce the development of GEBs and their advantages in disease management, summarize the latest research advances in microbial genetic techniques, and discuss their administration routes, performance indicators and the limitations of GEBs used as platforms for disease management. We also present several examples of GEB applications in the treatment of cancers and metabolic diseases and further highlight their great potential for clinical application in the near future.

Cross-kingdom expression of synthetic genetic elements promotes discovery of metabolites in the human microbiome

Small molecules encoded by biosynthetic pathways mediate cross-species interactions and harbor untapped potential, which has provided valuable compounds for medicine and biotechnology. Since studying biosynthetic gene clusters in their native context is often difficult, alternative efforts rely on heterologous expression, which is limited by host-specific metabolic capacity and regulation. Here, we describe a computational-experimental technology to redesign genes and their regulatory regions with hybrid elements for cross-species expression in Gram-negative and -positive bacteria and eukaryotes, decoupling biosynthetic capacity from host-range constraints to activate silenced pathways. These synthetic genetic elements enabled the discovery of a class of microbiome-derived nucleotide metabolites-tyrocitabines-from Lactobacillus iners. Tyrocitabines feature a remarkable orthoester-phosphate, inhibit translational activity, and invoke unexpected biosynthetic machinery, including a class of "Amadori synthases" and "abortive" tRNA synthetases. Our approach establishes a general strategy for the redesign, expression, mobilization, and characterization of genetic elements in diverse organisms and communities.

Improving the Yield and Quality of Daptomycin in Streptomyces roseosporus by Multilevel Metabolic Engineering

Daptomycin is a cyclic lipopeptide antibiotic with a significant antibacterial action against antibiotic-resistant Gram-positive bacteria. Despite numerous attempts to enhance daptomycin yield throughout the years, the production remains unsatisfactory. This study reports the application of multilevel metabolic engineering strategies in Streptomyces roseosporus to reconstruct high-quality daptomycin overproducing strain L2797-VHb, including precursor engineering (i.e., refactoring kynurenine pathway), regulatory pathway reconstruction (i.e., knocking out negative regulatory genes arpA and phaR), byproduct engineering (i.e., removing pigment), multicopy biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC), and fermentation process engineering (i.e., enhancing O₂ supply). The daptomycin titer of L2797-VHb arrived at 113 mg/l with 565% higher comparing the starting strain L2790 (17 mg/l) in shake flasks and was further increased to 786 mg/l in 15 L fermenter. This multilevel metabolic engineering method not only effectively increases daptomycin production, but can also be applied to enhance antibiotic production in other industrial strains.

Streptomyces as Microbial Chassis for Heterologous Protein Expression

Heterologous production of recombinant proteins is gaining increasing interest in biotechnology with respect to productivity, scalability, and wide applicability. The members of genus Streptomyces have been proposed as remarkable hosts for heterologous production due to their versatile nature of expressing various secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters and secretory enzymes. However, there are several issues that limit their use, including low yield, difficulty in genetic manipulation, and their complex cellular features. In this review, we summarize rational engineering approaches to optimizing the heterologous production of secondary metabolites and recombinant proteins in Streptomyces species in terms of genetic tool development and chassis construction. Further perspectives on the development of optimal Streptomyces chassis by the design-build-test-learn cycle in systems are suggested, which may increase the availability of secondary metabolites and recombinant proteins.

Synthetic Cellobiose-Inducible Regulatory Systems Allow Tight and Dynamic Controls of Gene Expression in Streptomyces

Precise control of microbial gene expression is crucial for synthetic biotechnological applications. This is particularly true for the bacterial genus Streptomyces, major producers of diverse natural products including many antibiotics. Although a plethora of genetic tools have been developed for Streptomyces, there is still an urgent need for effective gene induction systems. We herein created two novel cellobiose-inducible regulatory systems referred to as Cel-RS1 and Cel-RS2. The regulatory systems are based upon the well-characterized repressor/operator pair CebR/cebO from Streptomyces scabies and the well-defined constitutive kasO* promoter. Both Cel-RS1 and Cel-RS2 exhibit a high level of induced reporter activity and virtually no leaky expression in three model Streptomyces species, which are commonly used as surrogate hosts for expression of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters. Cel-RS2 has been proven successful for programmable control of gene expression and controllable production of specialized metabolites in multiple Streptomyces species. The strategy can be used to expand the toolkit of inducible regulatory systems that will be broadly applicable to various Streptomyces.

Recent Advances in Strategies for the Cloning of Natural Product Biosynthetic Gene Clusters

Microbial natural products (NPs) are a major source of pharmacological agents. Most NPs are synthesized from specific biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). With the rapid increase of sequenced microbial genomes, large numbers of NP BGCs have been discovered, regarded as a treasure trove of novel bioactive compounds. However, many NP BGCs are silent in native hosts under laboratory conditions. In order to explore their therapeutic potential, a main route is to activate these silent NP BGCs in heterologous hosts. To this end, the first step is to accurately and efficiently capture these BGCs. In the past decades, a large number of effective technologies for cloning NP BGCs have been established, which has greatly promoted drug discovery research. Herein, we describe recent advances in strategies for BGC cloning, with a focus on the preparation of high-molecular-weight DNA fragment, selection and optimization of vectors used for carrying large-size DNA, and methods for assembling targeted DNA fragment and appropriate vector. The future direction into novel, universal, and high-efficiency methods for cloning NP BGCs is also prospected.

Streptomyces: host for refactoring of diverse bioactive secondary metabolites

Microbial secondary metabolites are intensively explored due to their demands in pharmaceutical, agricultural and food industries. Streptomyces are one of the largest sources of secondary metabolites having diverse applications. In particular, the abundance of secondary metabolites encoding biosynthetic gene clusters and presence of wobble position in Streptomyces strains make it potential candidate as a native or heterologous host for secondary metabolite production including several cryptic gene clusters expression. Here, we have discussed the developments in Streptomyces strains genome mining, its exploration as a suitable host and application of synthetic biology for refactoring genetic systems for developing chassis for enhanced as well as novel secondary metabolites with reduced genome and cleaned background.

The Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle for metabolic engineering of Streptomycetes

Streptomycetes are producers of a wide range of specialized metabolites of great medicinal and industrial importance, such as antibiotics, antifungals, or pesticides. Having been the drivers of the golden age of antibiotics in the 1950s and 1960s, technological advancements over the last two decades have revealed that very little of their biosynthetic potential has been exploited so far. Given the great need for new antibiotics due to the emerging antimicrobial resistance crisis, as well as the urgent need for sustainable biobased production of complex molecules, there is a great renewed interest in exploring and engineering the biosynthetic potential of streptomycetes. Here, we describe the Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) cycle for metabolic engineering experiments in streptomycetes and how it can be used for the discovery and production of novel specialized metabolites.

Synthetic biology-inspired strategies and tools for engineering of microbial natural product biosynthetic pathways

Microbial-derived natural products (NPs) and their derivative products are of great importance and used widely in many fields, especially in pharmaceutical industries. However, there is an immediate need to establish innovative approaches, strategies, and techniques to discover new NPs with novel or enhanced biological properties, due to the less productivity and higher cost on traditional drug discovery pipelines from natural bioresources. Revealing of untapped microbial cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) using DNA sequencing technology and bioinformatics tools makes genome mining possible for NP discovery from microorganisms. Meanwhile, new approaches and strategies in the area of synthetic biology offer great potentials for generation of new NPs by engineering or creating synthetic systems with improved and desired functions. Development of approaches, strategies and tools in synthetic biology can facilitate not only exploration and enhancement in supply, and also in the structural diversification of NPs. Here, we discussed recent advances in synthetic biology-inspired strategies, including bioinformatics and genetic engineering tools and approaches for identification, cloning, editing/refactoring of candidate biosynthetic pathways, construction of heterologous expression hosts, fitness optimization between target pathways and hosts and detection of NP production.

Recent Advances in Silent Gene Cluster Activation in Streptomyces

Natural products (NPs) are critical sources of drug molecules for decades. About two-thirds of natural antibiotics are produced by Streptomyces. Streptomyces have a large number of secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (SM-BGCs) that may encode NPs. However, most of these BGCs are silent under standard laboratory conditions. Hence, activation of these silent BGCs is essential to current natural products discovery research. In this review, we described the commonly used strategies for silent BGC activation in Streptomyces from two aspects. One focused on the strategies applied in heterologous host, including methods to clone and reconstruct BGCs along with advances in chassis engineering; the other focused on methods applied in native host which includes engineering of promoters, regulatory factors, and ribosomes. With the metabolic network being elucidated more comprehensively and methods optimized more high-thoroughly, the discovery of NPs will be greatly accelerated.

Recent Advances in the Heterologous Biosynthesis of Natural Products from Streptomyces

Streptomyces is a significant source of natural products that are used as therapeutic antibiotics, anticancer and antitumor agents, pesticides, and dyes. Recently, with the advances in metabolite analysis, many new secondary metabolites have been characterized. Moreover, genome mining approaches demonstrate that many silent and cryptic biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) and many secondary metabolites are produced in very low amounts under laboratory conditions. One strain many compounds (OSMAC), overexpression/deletion of regulatory genes, ribosome engineering, and promoter replacement have been utilized to activate or enhance the production titer of target compounds. Hence, the heterologous expression of BGCs by transferring to a suitable production platform has been successfully employed for the detection, characterization, and yield quantity production of many secondary metabolites. In this review, we introduce the systematic approach for the heterologous production of secondary metabolites from Streptomyces in Streptomyces and other hosts, the genome analysis tools, the host selection, and the development of genetic control elements for heterologous expression and the production of secondary metabolites.

Multiple copies of the oxytetracycline gene cluster in selected Streptomyces rimosus strains can provide significantly increased titers

Background

Natural products are a valuable source of biologically active compounds that have applications in medicine and agriculture. One disadvantage with natural products is the slow, time-consuming strain improvement regimes that are necessary to ensure sufficient quantities of target compounds for commercial production. Although great efforts have been invested in strain selection methods, many of these technologies have not been improved in decades, which might pose a serious threat to the economic and industrial viability of such important bioprocesses.

Results

In recent years, introduction of extra copies of an entire biosynthetic pathway that encodes a target product in a single microbial host has become a technically feasible approach. However, this often results in minor to moderate increases in target titers. Strain stability and process reproducibility are the other critical factors in the industrial setting. Industrial Streptomyces rimosus strains for production of oxytetracycline are one of the most economically efficient strains ever developed, and thus these represent a very good industrial case. To evaluate the applicability of amplification of an entire gene cluster in a single host strain, we developed and evaluated various gene tools to introduce multiple copies of the entire oxytetracycline gene cluster into three different Streptomyces rimosus strains: wild-type, and medium and high oxytetracycline-producing strains. We evaluated the production levels of these engineered S. rimosus strains with extra copies of the oxytetracycline gene cluster and their stability, and the oxytetracycline gene cluster expression profiles; we also identified the chromosomal integration sites.

Conclusions

This study shows that stable and reproducible increases in target secondary metabolite titers can be achieved in wild-type and in high oxytetracycline-producing strains, which always reflects the metabolic background of each independent S. rimosus strain. Although this approach is technically very demanding and requires systematic effort, when combined with modern strain selection methods, it might constitute a very valuable approach in industrial process development.

Molecular mechanism of mureidomycin biosynthesis activated by introduction of an exogenous regulatory gene ssaA into Streptomyces roseosporus

Mureidomycins (MRDs), a group of unique uridyl-peptide antibiotics, exhibit antibacterial activity against the highly refractory pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Our previous study showed that the cryptic MRD biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) mrd in Streptomyces roseosporus NRRL 15998 could not be activated by its endogenous regulator 02995 but activated by an exogenous activator SsaA from sansanmycin’s BGC ssa of Streptomyces sp. strain SS. Here we report the molecular mechanism for this inexplicable regulation. EMSAs and footprinting experiments revealed that SsaA could directly bind to a 14-nt palindrome sequence of 5′-CTGRCNNNNGTCAG-3′ within six promoter regions of mrd. Disruption of three representative target genes (SSGG-02981, SSGG-02987 and SSGG-02994) showed that the target genes directly controlled by SsaA were essential for MRD production. The regulatory function was further investigated by replacing six regions of SSGG-02995 with those of ssaA. Surprisingly, only the replacement of 343–450 nt fragment encoding the 115–150 amino acids (AA) of SsaA could activate MRD biosynthesis. Further bioinformatics analysis showed that the 115–150 AA situated between two conserved domains of SsaA. Our findings significantly demonstrate that constitutive expression of a homologous exogenous regulatory gene is an effective strategy to awaken cryptic biosynthetic pathways in Streptomyces.

Cloning and Overexpression of the Toy Cluster for Titer Improvement of Toyocamycin in Streptomyces diastatochromogenes

The nucleoside antibiotic toyocamycin (TM) is a potential fungicide that can control plant diseases, and it has become an attractive target for research. Streptomyces diastatochromogenes 1628, a TM-producing strain, was isolated by our laboratory and was considered to be a potent industrial producer of TM. Recently, the putative TM biosynthetic gene cluster (toy cluster) in S. diastatochromogenes 1628 was found by genome sequencing. In this study, the role of toy cluster for TM biosynthesis in S. diastatochromogenes 1628 was investigated by heterologous expression, deletion, and complementation. The extract of the recombinant strain S. albusJ1074-TC harboring a copy of toy cluster produced TM as shown by HPLC analysis. The Δcluster mutant completely lost its ability to produce TM. TM production in the complemented strain was restored to a level comparable to that of the wild-type strain. These results confirmed that the toy cluster is responsible for TM biosynthesis. Moreover, the introduction of an extra copy of the toy cluster into S. diastatochromogenes 1628 led to onefold increase in TM production (312.9 mg/l vs. 152.1 mg/l) as well as the transcription of all toy genes. The toy gene cluster was engineered in which the native promoter of toyA gene, toyM gene, toyBD operon, and toyEI operon was, respectively, replaced by permE^∗ or SPL57. To further improve TM production, the engineered toy gene cluster was, respectively, introduced and overexpressed in S. diastatochromogenes 1628 to generate recombinant strains S. diastatochromogenes 1628-EC and 1628-SC. After 84 h, S. diastatochromogenes 1628-EC and 1628-SC produced 456.5 mg/l and 638.9 mg/l TM, respectively, which is an increase of 2- and 3.2-fold compared with the wild-type strain.

Bioprospecting Through Cloning of Whole Natural Product Biosynthetic Gene Clusters

Since the discovery of penicillin, natural products and their derivatives have been a valuable resource for drug discovery. With recent development of genome mining approaches in the post-genome era, a great number of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) have been identified and these can potentially be exploited for the discovery of novel natural products that can find application as pharmaceuticals. Since many BGCs are silent or do not express in native hosts under laboratory conditions, heterologous expression of BGCs in genetically tractable hosts becomes an attractive route to activate these BGCs to discover the corresponding products. Here, we highlight recent achievements in cloning and discovery of natural product biosynthetic pathways via intact BGC capturing, and discuss the prospects of high-throughput and multiplexed cloning of rational-designed gene clusters in the future.

In Vitro Packaging Mediated One-Step Targeted Cloning of Natural Product Pathway

Direct cloning of natural product pathways for efficient refactoring and heterologous expression has become an important strategy for microbial natural product research and discovery, especially for those kept silent or poorly expressed in the original strains. Accordingly, the development of convenient and efficient cloning approaches is becoming increasingly necessary. Here we presented an in vitro packaging mediated cloning approach that combines CRISPR/Cas9 system with in vitro λ packaging system, for targeted cloning of natural product pathways. In such a scheme, pathways of Tü3010 (27.4 kb) and sisomicin (40.7 kb) were respectively cloned, and stuR was further depicted to positively regulate Tü3010 production. In vitro packaging mediated approach not only enables to activate cryptic pathways, but also facilitates refactoring or interrogating the pathways in conjunction with various gene editing systems. This approach features an expedited, convenient, and generic manner, and it is conceivable that it may be widely adopted for targeted cloning of the natural product pathways.

Genetic platforms for heterologous expression of microbial natural products

Covering: 2005 up to 2019Natural products are of paramount importance in human medicine. Not only are most antibacterial and anticancer drugs derived directly from or inspired by natural products, many other branches of medicine, such as immunology, neurology, and cardiology, have similarly benefited from natural product-based drugs. Typically, the genetic material required to synthesize a microbial specialized product is arranged in a multigene biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC), which codes for proteins associated with molecule construction, regulation, and transport. The ability to connect natural product compounds to BGCs and vice versa, along with ever-increasing knowledge of biosynthetic machineries, has spawned the field of genomics-guided natural product genome mining for the rational discovery of new chemical entities. One significant challenge in the field of natural product genome mining is how to rapidly link orphan biosynthetic genes to their associated chemical products. This review highlights state-of-the-art genetic platforms to identify, interrogate, and engineer BGCs from diverse microbial sources, which can be broken into three stages: (1) cloning and isolation of genomic loci, (2) heterologous expression in a host organism, and (3) genetic manipulation of cloned pathways. In the future, we envision natural product genome mining will be rapidly accelerated by de novo DNA synthesis and refactoring of whole biosynthetic pathways in combination with systematic heterologous expression methodologies.

Evaluation of vector systems and promoters for overexpression of the acarbose biosynthesis gene acbC in Actinoplanes sp. SE50/110

Background

Actinoplanes sp. SE50/110 is a natural producer of acarbose. It has been extensively studied in the last decades, which has led to the comprehensive analysis of the whole genome, transcriptome and proteome. First genetic and microbial techniques have been successfully established allowing targeted genome editing by CRISPR/Cas9 and conjugal transfer. Still, a suitable system for the overexpression of singular genes does not exist for Actinoplanes sp. SE50/110. Here, we discuss, test and analyze different strategies by the example of the acarbose biosynthesis gene acbC.

Results

The integrative φC31-based vector pSET152 was chosen for the development of an expression system, as for the replicative pSG5-based vector pKC1139 unwanted vector integration by homologous recombination was observed. Since simple gene duplication by pSET152 integration under control of native promoters appeared to be insufficient for overexpression, a promoter screening experiment was carried out. We analyzed promoter strengths of five native and seven heterologous promoters using transcriptional fusion with the gusA gene and glucuronidase assays as well as reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Additionally, we mapped transcription starts and identified the promoter sequence motifs by 5′-RNAseq experiments. Promoters with medium to strong expression were included into the pSET152-system, leading to an overexpression of the acbC gene. AcbC catalyzes the first step of acarbose biosynthesis and connects primary to secondary metabolism. By overexpression, the acarbose formation was not enhanced, but slightly reduced in case of strongest overexpression. We assume either disturbance of substrate channeling or a negative feed-back inhibition by one of the intermediates, which accumulates in the acbC-overexpression mutant. According to LC–MS-analysis, we conclude, that this intermediate is valienol-7P. This points to a bottleneck in later steps of acarbose biosynthesis.

Conclusion

Development of an overexpression system for Actinoplanes sp. SE50/110 is an important step for future metabolic engineering. This system will help altering transcript amounts of singular genes, that can be used to unclench metabolic bottlenecks and to redirect metabolic resources. Furthermore, an essential tool is provided, that can be transferred to other subspecies of Actinoplanes and industrially relevant derivatives.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12934-019-1162-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Heterologous expression of bacterial natural product biosynthetic pathways

The review highlights the 2013–2018 literature on the heterologous expression of bacterial natural product biosynthetic pathways and emphasises new techniques, heterologous hosts, and novel chemistry.

Heterologous expression of bacterial natural product biosynthetic pathways

The review highlights the 2013–2018 literature on the heterologous expression of bacterial natural product biosynthetic pathways and emphasises new techniques, heterologous hosts, and novel chemistry.

Heterologous expression-facilitated natural products' discovery in actinomycetes

Actinomycetes produce many of the drugs essential for human and animal health as well as crop protection. Genome sequencing projects launched over the past two decades reveal dozens of cryptic natural product biosynthetic gene clusters in each actinomycete genome that are not expressed under regular laboratory conditions. This so-called 'chemical dark matter' represents a potentially rich untapped resource for drug discovery in the genomic era. Through improved understanding of natural product biosynthetic logic coupled with the development of bioinformatic and genetic tools, we are increasingly able to access this 'dark matter' using a wide variety of strategies with downstream potential application in drug development. In this review, we discuss recent research progress in the field of cloning of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters and their heterologous expression in validating the potential of this methodology to drive next-generation drug discovery.

Regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis in actinomycetes: Perspectives and challenges

Actinomycetes are the main sources of antibiotics. The onset and level of production of each antibiotic is subject to complex control by multi-level regulators. These regulators exert their functions at hierarchical levels. At the lower level, cluster-situated regulators (CSRs) directly control the transcription of neighboring genes within the gene cluster. Higher-level pleiotropic and global regulators exert their functions mainly through modulating the transcription of CSRs. Advances in understanding of the regulation of antibiotic biosynthesis in actinomycetes have inspired us to engineer these regulators for strain improvement and antibiotic discovery.

Boosting Secondary Metabolite Production and Discovery through the Engineering of Novel Microbial Biosensors

Bacteria are a source of a large number of secondary metabolites with several biomedical and biotechnological applications. In recent years, there has been tremendous progress in the development of novel synthetic biology approaches both to increase the production rate of secondary metabolites of interest in native producers and to mine and reconstruct novel biosynthetic gene clusters in heterologous hosts. Here, we present the recent advances toward the engineering of novel microbial biosensors to detect the synthesis of secondary metabolites in bacteria and in the development of synthetic promoters and expression systems aiming at the construction of microbial cell factories for the production of these compounds. We place special focus on the potential of Gram-negative bacteria as a source of biosynthetic gene clusters and hosts for pathway assembly, on the construction and characterization of novel promoters for native hosts, and on the use of computer-aided design of novel pathways and expression systems for secondary metabolite production. Finally, we discuss some of the potentials and limitations of the approaches that are currently being developed and we highlight new directions that could be addressed in the field.

De novo Biosynthesis of "Non-Natural" Thaxtomin Phytotoxins

Thaxtomins are diketopiperazine phytotoxins produced by Streptomyces scabies and other actinobacterial plant pathogens that inhibit cellulose biosynthesis in plants. Due to their potent bioactivity and novel mode of action there has been considerable interest in developing thaxtomins as herbicides for crop protection. To address the need for more stable derivatives, we have developed a new approach for structural diversification of thaxtomins. Genes encoding the thaxtomin NRPS from S. scabies, along with genes encoding a promiscuous tryptophan synthase (TrpS) from Salmonella typhimurium, were assembled in a heterologous host Streptomyces albus. Upon feeding indole derivatives to the engineered S. albus strain, tryptophan intermediates with alternative substituents are biosynthesized and incorporated by the NRPS to deliver a series of thaxtomins with different functionalities in place of the nitro group. The approach described herein, demonstrates how genes from different pathways and different bacterial origins can be combined in a heterologous host to create a de novo biosynthetic pathway to "non-natural" product target compounds.

Genome engineering for microbial natural product discovery

The discovery and development of microbial natural products (MNPs) have played pivotal roles in the fields of human medicine and its related biotechnology sectors over the past several decades. The post-genomic era has witnessed the development of microbial genome mining approaches to isolate previously unsuspected MNP biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) hidden in the genome, followed by various BGC awakening techniques to visualize compound production. Additional microbial genome engineering techniques have allowed higher MNP production titers, which could complement a traditional culture-based MNP chasing approach. Here, we describe recent developments in the MNP research paradigm, including microbial genome mining, NP BGC activation, and NP overproducing cell factory design.

Biosynthesis of antibiotic chuangxinmycin from Actinoplanes tsinanensis

Chuangxinmycin is an antibiotic isolated from Actinoplanes tsinanensis CPCC 200056 in the 1970s with a novel indole-dihydrothiopyran heterocyclic skeleton. Chuangxinmycin showed in vitro antibacterial activity and in vivo efficacy in mouse infection models as well as preliminary clinical trials. But the biosynthetic pathway of chuangxinmycin has been obscure since its discovery. Herein, we report the identification of a stretch of DNA from the genome of A. tsinanensis CPCC 200056 that encodes genes for biosynthesis of chuangxinmycin by bioinformatics analysis. The designated cxn cluster was then confirmed to be responsible for chuangxinmycin biosynthesis by direct cloning and heterologous expressing in Streptomyces coelicolor M1146. The cytochrome P450 CxnD was verified to be involved in the dihydrothiopyran ring closure reaction by the identification of seco-chuangxinmycin in S. coelicolor M1146 harboring the cxn gene cluster with an inactivated cxnD. Based on these results, a plausible biosynthetic pathway for chuangxinmycin biosynthesis was proposed, by hijacking the primary sulfur transfer system for sulfur incorporation. The identification of the biosynthetic gene cluster of chuangxinmycin paves the way for elucidating the detail biochemical machinery for chuangxinmycin biosynthesis, and provides the basis for the generation of novel chuangxinmycin derivatives by means of combinatorial biosynthesis and synthetic biology.

Exploration and exploitation of the environment for novel specialized metabolites

Microorganisms are Nature's little engineers of a remarkable array of bioactive small molecules that represent most of our new drugs. The wealth of genomic and metagenomic sequence data generated in the last decade has shown that the majority of novel biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) is identified from cultivation-independent studies, which has led to a strong expansion of the number of microbial taxa known to harbour BGCs. The large size and repeat sequences of BGCs remain a bioinformatic challenge, but newly developed software tools have been created to overcome these issues and are paramount to identify and select the most promising BGCs for further research and exploitation. Although heterologous expression of BGCs has been the greatest challenge until now, a growing number of polyketide synthase (PKS) and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS)-encoding gene clusters have been cloned and expressed in bacteria and fungi based on techniques that mostly rely on homologous recombination. Finally, combining ecological insights with state-of-the-art computation and molecular methodologies will allow for further comprehension and exploitation of microbial specialized metabolites.

A Family of Single Copy repABC-Type Shuttle Vectors Stably Maintained in the Alpha-Proteobacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti

A considerable share of bacterial species maintains segmented genomes. Plant symbiotic α-proteobacterial rhizobia contain up to six repABC-type replicons in addition to the primary chromosome. These low or unit-copy replicons, classified as secondary chromosomes, chromids, or megaplasmids, are exclusively found in α-proteobacteria. Replication and faithful partitioning of these replicons to the daughter cells is mediated by the repABC region. The importance of α-rhizobial symbiotic nitrogen fixation for sustainable agriculture and Agrobacterium-mediated plant transformation as a tool in plant sciences has increasingly moved biological engineering of these organisms into focus. Plasmids are ideal DNA-carrying vectors for these engineering efforts. On the basis of repABC regions collected from α-rhizobial secondary replicons, and origins of replication derived from traditional cloning vectors, we devised the versatile family of pABC shuttle vectors propagating in Sinorhizobium meliloti, related members of the Rhizobiales, and Escherichia coli. A modular plasmid library providing the elemental parts for pABC vector assembly was founded. The standardized design of these vectors involves five basic modules: (1) repABC cassette, (2) plasmid-derived origin of replication, (3) RK2/RP4 mobilization site (optional), (4) antibiotic resistance gene, and (5) multiple cloning site flanked by transcription terminators. In S. meliloti, pABC vectors showed high propagation stability and unit-copy number. We demonstrated stable coexistence of three pABC vectors in addition to the two indigenous megaplasmids in S. meliloti, suggesting combinability of multiple compatible pABC plasmids. We further devised an in vivo cloning strategy involving Cre/lox-mediated translocation of large DNA fragments to an autonomously replicating repABC-based vector, followed by conjugation-mediated transfer either to compatible rhizobia or E. coli.

Cloning and Heterologous Expression of a Large-sized Natural Product Biosynthetic Gene Cluster in Streptomyces Species

Actinomycetes family including Streptomyces species have been a major source for the discovery of novel natural products (NPs) in the last several decades thanks to their structural novelty, diversity and complexity. Moreover, recent genome mining approach has provided an attractive tool to screen potentially valuable NP biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) present in the actinomycetes genomes. Since many of these NP BGCs are silent or cryptic in the original actinomycetes, various techniques have been employed to activate these NP BGCs. Heterologous expression of BGCs has become a useful strategy to produce, reactivate, improve, and modify the pathways of NPs present at minute quantities in the original actinomycetes isolates. However, cloning and efficient overexpression of an entire NP BGC, often as large as over 100 kb, remain challenging due to the ineffectiveness of current genetic systems in manipulating large NP BGCs. This mini review describes examples of actinomycetes NP production through BGC heterologous expression systems as well as recent strategies specialized for the large-sized NP BGCs in Streptomyces heterologous hosts.

Recent advances in genetic modification systems for Actinobacteria

Actinobacteria are extremely important to human health, agriculture, and forests. Because of the vast differences of the characteristics of Actinobacteria, a lot of genetic tools have been developed for efficiently manipulating the genetics. Although there are a lot of successful examples of engineering Actinobacteria, they are still more difficult to be genetically manipulated than other model microorganisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus subtilis etc. due to the diverse genomics and biochemical machinery. Here, we review the methods to introduce heterologous DNA into Actinobacteria and the available genetic modification tools. The trends and problems existing in engineering Actinobacteria are also covered.

Bxb1 integrase serves as a highly efficient DNA recombinase in rapid metabolite pathway assembly

Phage-encoded serine integrases are widely used in genetic engineering. They also have the potential to serve as efficient DNA assemblers, demonstrated by the method of site-specific recombination-based tandem assembly (SSRTA) that can combine biological parts into devices, pathways, and systems. Here, four serine integrases, ϕBT1, TG1, ϕRv1, and Bxb1, were investigated to ascertain their in vitro DNA assembly activities. Bxb1 integrase displayed the highest efficiency to obtain final products. Thus, we conclude that Bxb1 integrase is an excellent choice for DNA assembly in vitro Using this enzyme and its recognition sites, BioBrick standards were designed that are compatible with the SSRTA method for module addition. A rapid and efficient procedure was developed for the assembly of a multigene metabolic pathway in one step, directly from non-cutting plasmids containing the gene fragments. This technique is easy and convenient, and would be of interest to the synthetic biology community.

Recent advances in understanding Streptomyces

About 2,500 papers dated 2014–2016 were recovered by searching the PubMed database for Streptomyces, which are the richest known source of antibiotics. This review integrates around 100 of these papers in sections dealing with evolution, ecology, pathogenicity, growth and development, stress responses and secondary metabolism, gene expression, and technical advances. Genomic approaches have greatly accelerated progress. For example, it has been definitively shown that interspecies recombination of conserved genes has occurred during evolution, in addition to exchanges of some of the tens of thousands of non-conserved accessory genes. The closeness of the association of Streptomyces with plants, fungi, and insects has become clear and is reflected in the importance of regulators of cellulose and chitin utilisation in overall Streptomyces biology. Interestingly, endogenous cellulose-like glycans are also proving important in hyphal growth and in the clumping that affects industrial fermentations. Nucleotide secondary messengers, including cyclic di-GMP, have been shown to provide key input into developmental processes such as germination and reproductive growth, while late morphological changes during sporulation involve control by phosphorylation. The discovery that nitric oxide is produced endogenously puts a new face on speculative models in which regulatory Wbl proteins (peculiar to actinobacteria) respond to nitric oxide produced in stressful physiological transitions. Some dramatic insights have come from a new model system for Streptomyces developmental biology, Streptomyces venezuelae, including molecular evidence of very close interplay in each of two pairs of regulatory proteins. An extra dimension has been added to the many complexities of the regulation of secondary metabolism by findings of regulatory crosstalk within and between pathways, and even between species, mediated by end products. Among many outcomes from the application of chromosome immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) analysis and other methods based on “next-generation sequencing” has been the finding that 21% of Streptomyces mRNA species lack leader sequences and conventional ribosome binding sites. Further technical advances now emerging should lead to continued acceleration of knowledge, and more effective exploitation, of these astonishing and critically important organisms.

Applications of genome editing by programmable nucleases to the metabolic engineering of secondary metabolites

Genome engineering is a branch of modern biotechnology composed of a cohort of protocols designed to construct and modify a genotype with the main objective of giving rise to a desired phenotype. Conceptually, genome engineering is based on the so called genome editing technologies, a group of genetic techniques that allow either to delete or to insert genetic information in a particular genomic locus. Ten years ago, genome editing tools were limited to virus-driven integration and homologous DNA recombination. However, nowadays the uprising of programmable nucleases is rapidly changing this paradigm. There are two main families of modern tools for genome editing depending on the molecule that controls the specificity of the system and drives the editor machinery to its place of action. Enzymes such as Zn-finger and TALEN nucleases are protein-driven genome editors; while CRISPR system is a nucleic acid-guided editing system. Genome editing techniques are still not widely applied for the design of new compounds with pharmacological activity, but they are starting to be considered as promising tools for rational genome manipulation in biotechnology applications. In this review we will discuss the potential applications of programmable nucleases for the metabolic engineering of secondary metabolites with biological activity.

Simple and rapid direct cloning and heterologous expression of natural product biosynthetic gene cluster in Bacillus subtilis via Red/ET recombineering

Heterologous expression of biosynthetic pathways is an important way to research and discover microbial natural products. Bacillus subtilis is a suitable host for the heterologous production of natural products from bacilli and related Firmicutes. Existing technologies for heterologous expression of large biosynthetic gene clusters in B. subtilis are complicated. Herein, we present a simple and rapid strategy for direct cloning based heterologous expression of biosynthetic pathways in B. subtilis via Red/ET recombineering, using a 5.2 kb specific direct cloning vector carrying homologous sequences to the amyE gene in B. subtilis and CcdB counterselection marker. Using a two-step procedure, two large biosynthetic pathways for edeine (48.3 kb) and bacillomycin (37.2 kb) from Brevibacillus brevis X23 and B. amyloliquefaciens FZB42, respectively, were directly cloned and subsequently integrated into the chromosome of B. subtilis within one week. The gene cluster for bacillomycin was successfully expressed in the heterologous host, although edeine production was not detectable. Compared with similar technologies, this method offers a simpler and more feasible system for the discovery of natural products from bacilli and related genera.

Engineering microbial hosts for production of bacterial natural products

Covering up to end 2015Microbial fermentation provides an attractive alternative to chemical synthesis for the production of structurally complex natural products. In most cases, however, production titers are low and need to be improved for compound characterization and/or commercial production. Owing to advances in functional genomics and genetic engineering technologies, microbial hosts can be engineered to overproduce a desired natural product, greatly accelerating the traditionally time-consuming strain improvement process. This review covers recent developments and challenges in the engineering of native and heterologous microbial hosts for the production of bacterial natural products, focusing on the genetic tools and strategies for strain improvement. Special emphasis is placed on bioactive secondary metabolites from actinomycetes. The considerations for the choice of host systems will also be discussed in this review.

"Cre/loxP plus BAC": a strategy for direct cloning of large DNA fragment and its applications in Photorhabdus luminescens and Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Heterologous expression has been proven to be a valid strategy for elucidating the natural products produced by gene clusters uncovered by genome sequencing projects. Efforts have been made to efficiently clone gene clusters directly from genomic DNA and several approaches have been developed. Here, we present an alternative strategy based on the site-specific recombinase system Cre/loxP for direct cloning gene clusters. A type three secretion system (T3SS) gene cluster (~32 kb) from Photorhabdus luminescens TT01 and DNA fragment (~78 kb) containing the siderophore biosynthetic gene cluster from Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58 have been successfully cloned into pBeloBAC11 with “Cre/loxP plus BAC” strategy. Based on the fact that Cre/loxP system has successfully used for genomic engineering in a wide range of organisms, we believe that this strategy could be widely used for direct cloning of large DNA fragment.

Generate a bioactive natural product library by mining bacterial cytochrome P450 patterns

The increased number of annotated bacterial genomes provides a vast resource for genome mining. Several bacterial natural products with epoxide groups have been identified as pre-mRNA spliceosome inhibitors and antitumor compounds through genome mining. These epoxide-containing natural products feature a common biosynthetic characteristic that cytochrome P450s (CYPs) and its patterns such as epoxidases are employed in the tailoring reactions. The tailoring enzyme patterns are essential to both biological activities and structural diversity of natural products, and can be used for enzyme pattern-based genome mining. Recent development of direct cloning, heterologous expression, manipulation of the biosynthetic pathways and the CRISPR-CAS9 system have provided molecular biology tools to turn on or pull out nascent biosynthetic gene clusters to generate a microbial natural product library. This review focuses on a library of epoxide-containing natural products and their associated CYPs, with the intention to provide strategies on diversifying the structures of CYP-catalyzed bioactive natural products. It is conceivable that a library of diversified bioactive natural products will be created by pattern-based genome mining, direct cloning and heterologous expression as well as the genomic manipulation.

New tools for reconstruction and heterologous expression of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters

Natural product scaffolds remain a major source and inspiration for human therapeutics. However, generation of a natural product in the post-genomic era often requires reconstruction of the corresponding biosynthetic gene cluster in a heterologous host. In the burgeoning fields of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, a significant amount of efforts has been devoted to develop DNA assembly techniques with higher efficiency, fidelity, and modularity, and heterologous expression systems with higher productivity and yield. Here we describe recent advances in DNA assembly and host engineering and highlight their applications in natural product discovery and engineering.