1
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Croce R, Carmo-Silva E, Cho YB, Ermakova M, Harbinson J, Lawson T, McCormick AJ, Niyogi KK, Ort DR, Patel-Tupper D, Pesaresi P, Raines C, Weber APM, Zhu XG. Perspectives on improving photosynthesis to increase crop yield. THE PLANT CELL 2024; 36:3944-3973. [PMID: 38701340 PMCID: PMC11449117 DOI: 10.1093/plcell/koae132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2024] [Revised: 03/11/2024] [Accepted: 03/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/05/2024]
Abstract
Improving photosynthesis, the fundamental process by which plants convert light energy into chemical energy, is a key area of research with great potential for enhancing sustainable agricultural productivity and addressing global food security challenges. This perspective delves into the latest advancements and approaches aimed at optimizing photosynthetic efficiency. Our discussion encompasses the entire process, beginning with light harvesting and its regulation and progressing through the bottleneck of electron transfer. We then delve into the carbon reactions of photosynthesis, focusing on strategies targeting the enzymes of the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle. Additionally, we explore methods to increase carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration near the Rubisco, the enzyme responsible for the first step of CBB cycle, drawing inspiration from various photosynthetic organisms, and conclude this section by examining ways to enhance CO2 delivery into leaves. Moving beyond individual processes, we discuss two approaches to identifying key targets for photosynthesis improvement: systems modeling and the study of natural variation. Finally, we revisit some of the strategies mentioned above to provide a holistic view of the improvements, analyzing their impact on nitrogen use efficiency and on canopy photosynthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberta Croce
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1081 HV, theNetherlands
| | | | - Young B Cho
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Maria Ermakova
- School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
| | - Jeremy Harbinson
- Laboratory of Biophysics, Wageningen University, 6708 WE Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Tracy Lawson
- School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ, UK
| | - Alistair J McCormick
- School of Biological Sciences, Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK
- Centre for Engineering Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, UK
| | - Krishna K Niyogi
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Donald R Ort
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Dhruv Patel-Tupper
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Paolo Pesaresi
- Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy
| | - Christine Raines
- School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ, UK
| | - Andreas P M Weber
- Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf 40225, Germany
| | - Xin-Guang Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Carbon Capture, Center of Excellence for Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China
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2
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Khan N, Choi SH, Lee CH, Qu M, Jeon JS. Photosynthesis: Genetic Strategies Adopted to Gain Higher Efficiency. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:8933. [PMID: 39201620 PMCID: PMC11355022 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25168933] [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: 07/10/2024] [Revised: 08/11/2024] [Accepted: 08/13/2024] [Indexed: 09/02/2024] Open
Abstract
The global challenge of feeding an ever-increasing population to maintain food security requires novel approaches to increase crop yields. Photosynthesis, the fundamental energy and material basis for plant life on Earth, is highly responsive to environmental conditions. Evaluating the operational status of the photosynthetic mechanism provides insights into plants' capacity to adapt to their surroundings. Despite immense effort, photosynthesis still falls short of its theoretical maximum efficiency, indicating significant potential for improvement. In this review, we provide background information on the various genetic aspects of photosynthesis, explain its complexity, and survey relevant genetic engineering approaches employed to improve the efficiency of photosynthesis. We discuss the latest success stories of gene-editing tools like CRISPR-Cas9 and synthetic biology in achieving precise refinements in targeted photosynthesis pathways, such as the Calvin-Benson cycle, electron transport chain, and photorespiration. We also discuss the genetic markers crucial for mitigating the impact of rapidly changing environmental conditions, such as extreme temperatures or drought, on photosynthesis and growth. This review aims to pinpoint optimization opportunities for photosynthesis, discuss recent advancements, and address the challenges in improving this critical process, fostering a globally food-secure future through sustainable food crop production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naveed Khan
- Graduate School of Green-Bio Science, Kyung Hee University, Yongin 17104, Republic of Korea; (N.K.); (S.-H.C.)
- Life and Industry Convergence Research Institute, Pusan National University, Miryang 50463, Republic of Korea;
| | - Seok-Hyun Choi
- Graduate School of Green-Bio Science, Kyung Hee University, Yongin 17104, Republic of Korea; (N.K.); (S.-H.C.)
| | - Choon-Hwan Lee
- Life and Industry Convergence Research Institute, Pusan National University, Miryang 50463, Republic of Korea;
- Department of Molecular Biology, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Republic of Korea
| | - Mingnan Qu
- Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Agriculture, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
| | - Jong-Seong Jeon
- Graduate School of Green-Bio Science, Kyung Hee University, Yongin 17104, Republic of Korea; (N.K.); (S.-H.C.)
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3
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Landwehr GM, Vogeli B, Tian C, Singal B, Gupta A, Lion R, Sargent EH, Karim AS, Jewett MC. A synthetic cell-free pathway for biocatalytic upgrading of one-carbon substrates. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.08.08.607227. [PMID: 39149402 PMCID: PMC11326285 DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.08.607227] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/17/2024]
Abstract
Biotechnological processes hold tremendous potential for the efficient and sustainable conversion of one-carbon (C1) substrates into complex multi-carbon products. However, the development of robust and versatile biocatalytic systems for this purpose remains a significant challenge. In this study, we report a hybrid electrochemical-biochemical cell-free system for the conversion of C1 substrates into the universal biological building block acetyl-CoA. The synthetic reductive formate pathway (ReForm) consists of five core enzymes catalyzing non-natural reactions that were established through a cell-free enzyme engineering platform. We demonstrate that ReForm works in a plug-and-play manner to accept diverse C1 substrates including CO2 equivalents. We anticipate that ReForm will facilitate efforts to build and improve synthetic C1 utilization pathways for a formate-based bioeconomy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grant M. Landwehr
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Bastian Vogeli
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Cong Tian
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Bharti Singal
- Stanford SLAC CryoEM Initiative, Stanford University; Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Anika Gupta
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Rebeca Lion
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Edward H. Sargent
- Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Ashty S. Karim
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Michael C. Jewett
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University; Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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4
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Giaveri S, Bohra N, Diehl C, Yang HY, Ballinger M, Paczia N, Glatter T, Erb TJ. Integrated translation and metabolism in a partially self-synthesizing biochemical network. Science 2024; 385:174-178. [PMID: 38991083 DOI: 10.1126/science.adn3856] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 06/03/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024]
Abstract
One of the hallmarks of living organisms is their capacity for self-organization and regeneration, which requires a tight integration of metabolic and genetic networks. We sought to construct a linked metabolic and genetic network in vitro that shows such lifelike behavior outside of a cellular context and generates its own building blocks from nonliving matter. We integrated the metabolism of the crotonyl-CoA/ethyl-malonyl-CoA/hydroxybutyryl-CoA cycle with cell-free protein synthesis using recombinant elements. Our network produces the amino acid glycine from CO2 and incorporates it into target proteins following DNA-encoded instructions. By orchestrating ~50 enzymes we established a basic cell-free operating system in which genetically encoded inputs into a metabolic network are programmed to activate feedback loops allowing for self-integration and (partial) self-regeneration of the complete system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Giaveri
- Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Nitin Bohra
- Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
- Max Planck School Matter to Life, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Christoph Diehl
- Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Hao Yuan Yang
- Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
- Max Planck School Matter to Life, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Martine Ballinger
- Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Nicole Paczia
- Core Facility for Metabolomics and Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Timo Glatter
- Facility for Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Tobias J Erb
- Department of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
- SYNMIKRO Center for Synthetic Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
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5
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Westhoff P, Weber APM. The role of metabolomics in informing strategies for improving photosynthesis. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 2024; 75:1696-1713. [PMID: 38158893 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erad508] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
Photosynthesis plays a vital role in acclimating to and mitigating climate change, providing food and energy security for a population that is constantly growing, and achieving an economy with zero carbon emissions. A thorough comprehension of the dynamics of photosynthesis, including its molecular regulatory network and limitations, is essential for utilizing it as a tool to boost plant growth, enhance crop yields, and support the production of plant biomass for carbon storage. Photorespiration constrains photosynthetic efficiency and contributes significantly to carbon loss. Therefore, modulating or circumventing photorespiration presents opportunities to enhance photosynthetic efficiency. Over the past eight decades, substantial progress has been made in elucidating the molecular basis of photosynthesis, photorespiration, and the key regulatory mechanisms involved, beginning with the discovery of the canonical Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle. Advanced chromatographic and mass spectrometric technologies have allowed a comprehensive analysis of the metabolite patterns associated with photosynthesis, contributing to a deeper understanding of its regulation. In this review, we summarize the results of metabolomics studies that shed light on the molecular intricacies of photosynthetic metabolism. We also discuss the methodological requirements essential for effective analysis of photosynthetic metabolism, highlighting the value of this technology in supporting strategies aimed at enhancing photosynthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philipp Westhoff
- CEPLAS Plant Metabolomics and Metabolism Laboratory, Heinrich-Heine-University, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Andreas P M Weber
- Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Heinrich-Heine-University, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
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6
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Schulz-Mirbach H, Dronsella B, He H, Erb TJ. Creating new-to-nature carbon fixation: A guide. Metab Eng 2024; 82:12-28. [PMID: 38160747 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2023.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2023] [Revised: 12/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
Synthetic biology aims at designing new biological functions from first principles. These new designs allow to expand the natural solution space and overcome the limitations of naturally evolved systems. One example is synthetic CO2-fixation pathways that promise to provide more efficient ways for the capture and conversion of CO2 than natural pathways, such as the Calvin Benson Bassham (CBB) cycle of photosynthesis. In this review, we provide a practical guideline for the design and realization of such new-to-nature CO2-fixation pathways. We introduce the concept of "synthetic CO2-fixation", and give a general overview over the enzymology and topology of synthetic pathways, before we derive general principles for their design from their eight naturally evolved analogs. We provide a comprehensive summary of synthetic carbon-assimilation pathways and derive a step-by-step, practical guide from the theoretical design to their practical implementation, before ending with an outlook on new developments in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helena Schulz-Mirbach
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 10, 35043, Marburg, Germany
| | - Beau Dronsella
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 10, 35043, Marburg, Germany; Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Hai He
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 10, 35043, Marburg, Germany
| | - Tobias J Erb
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 10, 35043, Marburg, Germany; Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Karl-von-Frisch-Str. 16, D-35043, Marburg, Germany.
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7
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Ducrot L, López IL, Orrego AH, López-Gallego F. Coenzyme A Thioester Intermediates as Platform Molecules in Cell-Free Chemical Biomanufacturing. Chembiochem 2024; 25:e202300673. [PMID: 37994376 DOI: 10.1002/cbic.202300673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2023] [Revised: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 11/24/2023]
Abstract
The in vitro synthesis of Coenzyme A (CoA)-thioester intermediates opens new avenues to transform simple molecules into more complex and multifunctional ones by assembling cell-free biosynthetic cascades. In this review, we have systematically cataloged known CoA-dependent enzyme reactions that have been successfully implemented in vitro. To faciliate their identification, we provide their UniProt ID when available. Based on this catalog, we have organized enzymes into three modules: activation, modification, and removal. i) The activation module includes enzymes capable of fusing CoA with organic molecules. ii) The modification module includes enzymes capable of catalyzing chemical modifications in the structure of acyl-CoA intermediates. And iii) the removal module includes enzymes able to remove the CoA and release an organic molecule different from the one activated in the upstream. Based on these reactions, we constructed a reaction network that summarizes the most relevant CoA-dependent biosynthetic pathways reported until today. From the information available in the articles, we have plotted the total turnover number of CoA as a function of the product titer, observing a positive correlation between both parameters. Therefore, the success of a CoA-dependent in vitro pathway depends on its ability to regenerate CoA, but also to regenerate other cofactors such as NAD(P)H and ATP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laurine Ducrot
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Paseo de Miramón 194, Donostia-San Sebastián, 20014, Spain
| | - Idania L López
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Paseo de Miramón 194, Donostia-San Sebastián, 20014, Spain
| | - Alejandro H Orrego
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Paseo de Miramón 194, Donostia-San Sebastián, 20014, Spain
| | - Fernando López-Gallego
- Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Paseo de Miramón 194, Donostia-San Sebastián, 20014, Spain
- Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48009, Bilbao, Spain
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8
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Yang X, Zhang Y, Zhao G. Artificial carbon assimilation: From unnatural reactions and pathways to synthetic autotrophic systems. Biotechnol Adv 2024; 70:108294. [PMID: 38013126 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2023.108294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Revised: 10/26/2023] [Accepted: 11/18/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Synthetic biology is being increasingly used to establish novel carbon assimilation pathways and artificial autotrophic strains that can be used in low-carbon biomanufacturing. Currently, artificial pathway design has made significant progress from advocacy to practice within a relatively short span of just over ten years. However, there is still huge scope for exploration of pathway diversity, operational efficiency, and host suitability. The accelerated research process will bring greater opportunities and challenges. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive summary and interpretation of representative one-carbon assimilation pathway designs and artificial autotrophic strain construction work. In addition, we propose some feasible design solutions based on existing research results and patterns to promote the development and application of artificial autotrophy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue Yang
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, China; National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin 300308, China; Haihe Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Tianjin 300308, China
| | - Yanfei Zhang
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin 300308, China; National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin 300308, China.
| | - Guoping Zhao
- National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin 300308, China; CAS-Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China.
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9
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Marchal D, Schulz L, Schuster I, Ivanovska J, Paczia N, Prinz S, Zarzycki J, Erb TJ. Machine Learning-Supported Enzyme Engineering toward Improved CO 2-Fixation of Glycolyl-CoA Carboxylase. ACS Synth Biol 2023; 12:3521-3530. [PMID: 37983631 PMCID: PMC10729300 DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.3c00403] [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: 07/03/2023] [Revised: 11/01/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 11/22/2023]
Abstract
Glycolyl-CoA carboxylase (GCC) is a new-to-nature enzyme that catalyzes the key reaction in the tartronyl-CoA (TaCo) pathway, a synthetic photorespiration bypass that was recently designed to improve photosynthetic CO2 fixation. GCC was created from propionyl-CoA carboxylase (PCC) through five mutations. However, despite reaching activities of naturally evolved biotin-dependent carboxylases, the quintuple substitution variant GCC M5 still lags behind 4-fold in catalytic efficiency compared to its template PCC and suffers from futile ATP hydrolysis during CO2 fixation. To further improve upon GCC M5, we developed a machine learning-supported workflow that reduces screening efforts for identifying improved enzymes. Using this workflow, we present two novel GCC variants with 2-fold increased carboxylation rate and 60% reduced energy demand, respectively, which are able to address kinetic and thermodynamic limitations of the TaCo pathway. Our work highlights the potential of combining machine learning and directed evolution strategies to reduce screening efforts in enzyme engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel
G. Marchal
- Department
of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg 35043, Germany
| | - Luca Schulz
- Department
of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg 35043, Germany
| | | | | | - Nicole Paczia
- Core
Facility for Metabolomics and Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry, Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg 35043, Germany
| | - Simone Prinz
- Central
Electron Microscopy Facility, Max-Planck-Institute
of Biophysics, Frankfurt 60438, Germany
| | - Jan Zarzycki
- Department
of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg 35043, Germany
| | - Tobias J. Erb
- Department
of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max-Planck-Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg 35043, Germany
- SYNMIKRO
Center for Synthetic Microbiology, Marburg 35032, Germany
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10
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Qiao Y, Ma W, Zhang S, Guo F, Liu K, Jiang Y, Wang Y, Xin F, Zhang W, Jiang M. Artificial multi-enzyme cascades and whole-cell transformation for bioconversion of C1 compounds: Advances, challenge and perspectives. Synth Syst Biotechnol 2023; 8:578-583. [PMID: 37706206 PMCID: PMC10495606 DOI: 10.1016/j.synbio.2023.08.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2023] [Revised: 08/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/29/2023] [Indexed: 09/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Artificial multi-enzyme cascades bear great potential for bioconversion of C1 compounds to value-added chemicals. Over the past decade, massive efforts have been devoted to constructing multi-enzyme cascades to produce glycolic acid, rare functional sugars and even starch from C1 compounds. However, in contrast to traditional fermentation utilizing C1 compounds with the expectation of competitive economic performance in future industrialization, multi-enzyme cascades systems in the proof-of-concept phase are facing the challenges of upscaling. Here, we offered an overview of the recent advances in the construction of in vitro multi-enzyme cascades and whole-cell transformation using C1 compounds as substrate. In addition, the existing challenges and possible solutions were also discussed aiming to combine the strengths of in vitro and in vivo multi-enzyme cascades systems for upscaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yangyi Qiao
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
| | - Wenyue Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
| | - Shangjie Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
| | - Feng Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
| | - Kang Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
| | - Yujia Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
| | - Yanxia Wang
- College of Food Science and Light Industry, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
| | - Fengxue Xin
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
| | - Wenming Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
| | - Min Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, PR China
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11
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Wagner N, Wen L, Frazão CJR, Walther T. Next-generation feedstocks methanol and ethylene glycol and their potential in industrial biotechnology. Biotechnol Adv 2023; 69:108276. [PMID: 37918546 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2023.108276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2023] [Revised: 10/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/22/2023] [Indexed: 11/04/2023]
Abstract
Microbial fermentation processes are expected to play an important role in reducing dependence on fossil-based raw materials for the production of everyday chemicals. In order to meet the growing demand for biotechnological products in the future, alternative carbon sources that do not compete with human nutrition must be exploited. The chemical conversion of the industrially emitted greenhouse gas CO2 into microbially utilizable platform chemicals such as methanol represents a sustainable strategy for the utilization of an abundant carbon source and has attracted enormous scientific interest in recent years. A relatively new approach is the microbial synthesis of products from the C2-compound ethylene glycol, which can also be synthesized from CO2 and non-edible biomass and, in addition, can be recovered from plastic waste. Here we summarize the main chemical routes for the synthesis of methanol and ethylene glycol from sustainable resources and give an overview of recent metabolic engineering work for establishing natural and synthetic microbial assimilation pathways. The different metabolic routes for C1 and C2 alcohol-dependent bioconversions were compared in terms of their theoretical maximum yields and their oxygen requirements for a wide range of value-added products. Assessment of the process engineering challenges for methanol and ethylene glycol-based fermentations underscores the theoretical advantages of new synthetic metabolic routes and advocates greater consideration of ethylene glycol, a C2 substrate that has received comparatively little attention to date.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nils Wagner
- TU Dresden, Institute of Natural Materials Technology, Bergstraße 120, 01062 Dresden, Germany
| | - Linxuan Wen
- TU Dresden, Institute of Natural Materials Technology, Bergstraße 120, 01062 Dresden, Germany
| | - Cláudio J R Frazão
- TU Dresden, Institute of Natural Materials Technology, Bergstraße 120, 01062 Dresden, Germany
| | - Thomas Walther
- TU Dresden, Institute of Natural Materials Technology, Bergstraße 120, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
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12
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Oliveira-Filho ER, Voiniciuc C, Hanson AD. Adapting enzymes to improve their functionality in plants: why and how. Biochem Soc Trans 2023; 51:1957-1966. [PMID: 37787016 PMCID: PMC10657173 DOI: 10.1042/bst20230532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Revised: 09/17/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 10/04/2023]
Abstract
Synthetic biology creates new metabolic processes and improves existing ones using engineered or natural enzymes. These enzymes are often sourced from cells that differ from those in the target plant organ with respect to, e.g. redox potential, effector levels, or proteostasis machinery. Non-native enzymes may thus need to be adapted to work well in their new plant context ('plantized') even if their specificity and kinetics in vitro are adequate. Hence there are two distinct ways in which an enzyme destined for use in plants can require improvement: In catalytic properties such as substrate and product specificity, kcat, and KM; and in general compatibility with the milieu of cells that express the enzyme. Continuous directed evolution systems can deliver both types of improvement and are so far the most broadly effective way to deliver the second type. Accordingly, in this review we provide a short account of continuous evolution methods, emphasizing the yeast OrthoRep system because of its suitability for plant applications. We then cover the down-to-earth and increasingly urgent issues of which enzymes and enzyme properties can - or cannot - be improved in theory, and which in practice are the best to target for crop improvement, i.e. those that are realistically improvable and important enough to warrant deploying continuous directed evolution. We take horticultural crops as examples because of the opportunities they present and to sharpen the focus.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Cătălin Voiniciuc
- Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, U.S.A
| | - Andrew D. Hanson
- Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, U.S.A
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13
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Smith EN, van Aalst M, Tosens T, Niinemets Ü, Stich B, Morosinotto T, Alboresi A, Erb TJ, Gómez-Coronado PA, Tolleter D, Finazzi G, Curien G, Heinemann M, Ebenhöh O, Hibberd JM, Schlüter U, Sun T, Weber APM. Improving photosynthetic efficiency toward food security: Strategies, advances, and perspectives. MOLECULAR PLANT 2023; 16:1547-1563. [PMID: 37660255 DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2023.08.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2023] [Revised: 08/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/31/2023] [Indexed: 09/04/2023]
Abstract
Photosynthesis in crops and natural vegetation allows light energy to be converted into chemical energy and thus forms the foundation for almost all terrestrial trophic networks on Earth. The efficiency of photosynthetic energy conversion plays a crucial role in determining the portion of incident solar radiation that can be used to generate plant biomass throughout a growth season. Consequently, alongside the factors such as resource availability, crop management, crop selection, maintenance costs, and intrinsic yield potential, photosynthetic energy use efficiency significantly influences crop yield. Photosynthetic efficiency is relevant to sustainability and food security because it affects water use efficiency, nutrient use efficiency, and land use efficiency. This review focuses specifically on the potential for improvements in photosynthetic efficiency to drive a sustainable increase in crop yields. We discuss bypassing photorespiration, enhancing light use efficiency, harnessing natural variation in photosynthetic parameters for breeding purposes, and adopting new-to-nature approaches that show promise for achieving unprecedented gains in photosynthetic efficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward N Smith
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Molecular Systems Biology - Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Marvin van Aalst
- Institute of Quantitative and Theoretical Biology, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Heinrich Heine University, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Tiina Tosens
- Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Ülo Niinemets
- Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
| | - Benjamin Stich
- Institute of Quantitative Genetics and Genomics of Plants, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Heinrich Heine University, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | | | | | - Tobias J Erb
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Paul A Gómez-Coronado
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Dimitri Tolleter
- Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble, IRIG-LPCV, Grenoble Alpes University, CNRS, CEA, INRAE, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Giovanni Finazzi
- Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble, IRIG-LPCV, Grenoble Alpes University, CNRS, CEA, INRAE, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Gilles Curien
- Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Grenoble, IRIG-LPCV, Grenoble Alpes University, CNRS, CEA, INRAE, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Matthias Heinemann
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Molecular Systems Biology - Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Oliver Ebenhöh
- Institute of Quantitative and Theoretical Biology, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Heinrich Heine University, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Julian M Hibberd
- Molecular Physiology, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK
| | - Urte Schlüter
- Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Heinrich Heine University, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Tianshu Sun
- Molecular Physiology, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK
| | - Andreas P M Weber
- Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Heinrich Heine University, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
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14
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Boisset ND, Favoino G, Meloni M, Jomat L, Cassier-Chauvat C, Zaffagnini M, Lemaire SD, Crozet P. Phosphoribulokinase abundance is not limiting the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1230723. [PMID: 37719215 PMCID: PMC10501310 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1230723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2023] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/19/2023]
Abstract
Improving photosynthetic efficiency in plants and microalgae is of utmost importance to support the growing world population and to enable the bioproduction of energy and chemicals. Limitations in photosynthetic light conversion efficiency can be directly attributed to kinetic bottlenecks within the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle (CBBC) responsible for carbon fixation. A better understanding of these bottlenecks in vivo is crucial to overcome these limiting factors through bio-engineering. The present study is focused on the analysis of phosphoribulokinase (PRK) in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We have characterized a PRK knock-out mutant strain and showed that in the absence of PRK, Chlamydomonas cannot grow photoautotrophically while functional complementation with a synthetic construct allowed restoration of photoautotrophy. Nevertheless, using standard genetic elements, the expression of PRK was limited to 40% of the reference level in complemented strains and could not restore normal growth in photoautotrophic conditions suggesting that the CBBC is limited. We were subsequently able to overcome this initial limitation by improving the design of the transcriptional unit expressing PRK using diverse combinations of DNA parts including PRK endogenous promoter and introns. This enabled us to obtain strains with PRK levels comparable to the reference strain and even overexpressing strains. A collection of strains with PRK levels between 16% and 250% of WT PRK levels was generated and characterized. Immunoblot and growth assays revealed that a PRK content of ≈86% is sufficient to fully restore photoautotrophic growth. This result suggests that PRK is present in moderate excess in Chlamydomonas. Consistently, the overexpression of PRK did not increase photosynthetic growth indicating that that the endogenous level of PRK in Chlamydomonas is not limiting the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle under optimal conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas D. Boisset
- Laboratoire de Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative, Institut de Biologie Parie-Seine, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7238, Paris, France
- Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire des Eucaryotes, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 8226, Paris, France
- Doctoral School of Plant Sciences, Université Paris-Saclay, Saint-Aubin, France
| | - Giusi Favoino
- Laboratoire de Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative, Institut de Biologie Parie-Seine, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7238, Paris, France
| | - Maria Meloni
- Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnologies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Lucile Jomat
- Laboratoire de Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative, Institut de Biologie Parie-Seine, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7238, Paris, France
| | - Corinne Cassier-Chauvat
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), UMR 9198, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Mirko Zaffagnini
- Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnologies, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Stéphane D. Lemaire
- Laboratoire de Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative, Institut de Biologie Parie-Seine, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7238, Paris, France
- Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire des Eucaryotes, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 8226, Paris, France
| | - Pierre Crozet
- Laboratoire de Biologie Computationnelle et Quantitative, Institut de Biologie Parie-Seine, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7238, Paris, France
- Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire des Eucaryotes, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 8226, Paris, France
- Polytech-Sorbonne, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
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15
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Li R, He Y, Chen J, Zheng S, Zhuang C. Research Progress in Improving Photosynthetic Efficiency. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24119286. [PMID: 37298238 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24119286] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2023] [Revised: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Photosynthesis is the largest mass- and energy-conversion process on Earth, and it is the material basis for almost all biological activities. The efficiency of converting absorbed light energy into energy substances during photosynthesis is very low compared to theoretical values. Based on the importance of photosynthesis, this article summarizes the latest progress in improving photosynthesis efficiency from various perspectives. The main way to improve photosynthetic efficiency is to optimize the light reactions, including increasing light absorption and conversion, accelerating the recovery of non-photochemical quenching, modifying enzymes in the Calvin cycle, introducing carbon concentration mechanisms into C3 plants, rebuilding the photorespiration pathway, de novo synthesis, and changing stomatal conductance. These developments indicate that there is significant room for improvement in photosynthesis, providing support for improving crop yields and mitigating changes in climate conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruiqi Li
- Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, China
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
| | - Ying He
- Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, China
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
| | - Junyu Chen
- Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, China
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
| | - Shaoyan Zheng
- Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, China
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
| | - Chuxiong Zhuang
- Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangzhou 510642, China
- State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
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16
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Pfister P, Diehl C, Hammarlund E, Carrillo M, Erb TJ. Enhancing the Substrate Specificity of Clostridium Succinyl-CoA Reductase for Synthetic Biology and Biocatalysis. Biochemistry 2023. [PMID: 37207322 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.3c00102] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Succinyl-CoA reductase (SucD) is an acylating aldehyde reductase that catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reduction of succinyl-CoA to succinic semialdehyde. The reaction sequence from succinate to crotonyl-CoA is of particular interest for several new-to-nature CO2-fixation pathways, such as the crotonyl-CoA/ethylmalonyl-CoA/hydroxybutyryl-CoA (CETCH) cycle, in which SucD plays a key role. However, pathways like the CETCH cycle feature several CoA-ester intermediates, which could be potentially side substrates for this enzyme. Here, we show that the side reaction for most CETCH cycle metabolites is relatively small (<2%) with the exception of mesaconyl-C1-CoA (16%), which represents a competing substrate in this pathway. We addressed this promiscuity by solving the crystal structure of a SucD of Clostridium kluyveri in complex with NADP+ and mesaconyl-C1-CoA. We further identified two residues (Lys70 and Ser243) that coordinate mesaconyl-C1-CoA at the active site. We targeted those residues with site-directed mutagenesis to improve succinyl-CoA over mesaconyl-C1-CoA reduction. The best resulting SucD variant, K70R, showed a strongly reduced side activity for mesaconyl-C1-CoA, but the substitution also reduced the specific activity for succinyl-CoA by a factor of 10. Transferring the same mutations into a SucD homologue from Clostridium difficile similarly decreases the side reaction of this enzyme for mesaconyl-C1-CoA from 12 to 2%, notably without changing the catalytic efficiency for succinyl-CoA. Overall, our structure-based engineering efforts provided a highly specific enzyme of interest for several applications in biocatalysis and synthetic biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pascal Pfister
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Str. 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Christoph Diehl
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Str. 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Eric Hammarlund
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Str. 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Martina Carrillo
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Str. 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Tobias J Erb
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Str. 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
- SYNMIKRO Center for Synthetic Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Str., 14, 35032 Marburg, Germany
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17
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Bierbaumer S, Nattermann M, Schulz L, Zschoche R, Erb TJ, Winkler CK, Tinzl M, Glueck SM. Enzymatic Conversion of CO 2: From Natural to Artificial Utilization. Chem Rev 2023; 123:5702-5754. [PMID: 36692850 PMCID: PMC10176493 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.2c00581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 28.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Enzymatic carbon dioxide fixation is one of the most important metabolic reactions as it allows the capture of inorganic carbon from the atmosphere and its conversion into organic biomass. However, due to the often unfavorable thermodynamics and the difficulties associated with the utilization of CO2, a gaseous substrate that is found in comparatively low concentrations in the atmosphere, such reactions remain challenging for biotechnological applications. Nature has tackled these problems by evolution of dedicated CO2-fixing enzymes, i.e., carboxylases, and embedding them in complex metabolic pathways. Biotechnology employs such carboxylating and decarboxylating enzymes for the carboxylation of aromatic and aliphatic substrates either by embedding them into more complex reaction cascades or by shifting the reaction equilibrium via reaction engineering. This review aims to provide an overview of natural CO2-fixing enzymes and their mechanistic similarities. We also discuss biocatalytic applications of carboxylases and decarboxylases for the synthesis of valuable products and provide a separate summary of strategies to improve the efficiency of such processes. We briefly summarize natural CO2 fixation pathways, provide a roadmap for the design and implementation of artificial carbon fixation pathways, and highlight examples of biocatalytic cascades involving carboxylases. Additionally, we suggest that biochemical utilization of reduced CO2 derivates, such as formate or methanol, represents a suitable alternative to direct use of CO2 and provide several examples. Our discussion closes with a techno-economic perspective on enzymatic CO2 fixation and its potential to reduce CO2 emissions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Bierbaumer
- Institute
of Chemistry, University of Graz, NAWI Graz, Heinrichstraße 28, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Maren Nattermann
- Department
of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Straße 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Luca Schulz
- Department
of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Straße 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | | | - Tobias J. Erb
- Department
of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Straße 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Christoph K. Winkler
- Institute
of Chemistry, University of Graz, NAWI Graz, Heinrichstraße 28, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | - Matthias Tinzl
- Department
of Biochemistry and Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch Straße 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany
| | - Silvia M. Glueck
- Institute
of Chemistry, University of Graz, NAWI Graz, Heinrichstraße 28, 8010 Graz, Austria
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18
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Nattermann M, Wenk S, Pfister P, He H, Lee SH, Szymanski W, Guntermann N, Zhu F, Nickel L, Wallner C, Zarzycki J, Paczia N, Gaißert N, Franciò G, Leitner W, Gonzalez R, Erb TJ. Engineering a new-to-nature cascade for phosphate-dependent formate to formaldehyde conversion in vitro and in vivo. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2682. [PMID: 37160875 PMCID: PMC10170137 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38072-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2022] [Accepted: 04/14/2023] [Indexed: 05/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Formate can be envisioned at the core of a carbon-neutral bioeconomy, where it is produced from CO2 by (electro-)chemical means and converted into value-added products by enzymatic cascades or engineered microbes. A key step in expanding synthetic formate assimilation is its thermodynamically challenging reduction to formaldehyde. Here, we develop a two-enzyme route in which formate is activated to formyl phosphate and subsequently reduced to formaldehyde. Exploiting the promiscuity of acetate kinase and N-acetyl-γ-glutamyl phosphate reductase, we demonstrate this phosphate (Pi)-based route in vitro and in vivo. We further engineer a formyl phosphate reductase variant with improved formyl phosphate conversion in vivo by suppressing cross-talk with native metabolism and interface the Pi route with a recently developed formaldehyde assimilation pathway to enable C2 compound formation from formate as the sole carbon source in Escherichia coli. The Pi route therefore offers a potent tool in expanding the landscape of synthetic formate assimilation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maren Nattermann
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Sebastian Wenk
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Pascal Pfister
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Hai He
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Seung Hwan Lee
- Department of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Witold Szymanski
- Institute of Translational Proteomics, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany
| | - Nils Guntermann
- Institute of Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Fayin Zhu
- Department of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
| | | | | | - Jan Zarzycki
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | - Nicole Paczia
- Core Facility for Metabolomics and Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
| | | | - Giancarlo Franciò
- Institute of Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Walter Leitner
- Institute of Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
| | - Ramon Gonzalez
- Department of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Tobias J Erb
- Department of Biochemistry & Synthetic Metabolism, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany.
- Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany.
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19
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Tan Z, Li J, Hou J, Gonzalez R. Designing artificial pathways for improving chemical production. Biotechnol Adv 2023; 64:108119. [PMID: 36764336 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2023.108119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Revised: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
Metabolic engineering exploits manipulation of catalytic and regulatory elements to improve a specific function of the host cell, often the synthesis of interesting chemicals. Although naturally occurring pathways are significant resources for metabolic engineering, these pathways are frequently inefficient and suffer from a series of inherent drawbacks. Designing artificial pathways in a rational manner provides a promising alternative for chemicals production. However, the entry barrier of designing artificial pathway is relatively high, which requires researchers a comprehensive and deep understanding of physical, chemical and biological principles. On the other hand, the designed artificial pathways frequently suffer from low efficiencies, which impair their further applications in host cells. Here, we illustrate the concept and basic workflow of retrobiosynthesis in designing artificial pathways, as well as the most currently used methods including the knowledge- and computer-based approaches. Then, we discuss how to obtain desired enzymes for novel biochemistries, and how to trim the initially designed artificial pathways for further improving their functionalities. Finally, we summarize the current applications of artificial pathways from feedstocks utilization to various products synthesis, as well as our future perspectives on designing artificial pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zaigao Tan
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China; School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China; Department of Bioengineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
| | - Jian Li
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China; School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China; Department of Bioengineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jin Hou
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao, China
| | - Ramon Gonzalez
- Department of Chemical, Biological, and Materials Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
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20
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Shebek KM, Strutz J, Broadbelt LJ, Tyo KEJ. Pickaxe: a Python library for the prediction of novel metabolic reactions. BMC Bioinformatics 2023; 24:106. [PMID: 36949401 PMCID: PMC10031857 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-023-05149-8] [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: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 01/13/2023] [Indexed: 03/24/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Biochemical reaction prediction tools leverage enzymatic promiscuity rules to generate reaction networks containing novel compounds and reactions. The resulting reaction networks can be used for multiple applications such as designing novel biosynthetic pathways and annotating untargeted metabolomics data. It is vital for these tools to provide a robust, user-friendly method to generate networks for a given application. However, existing tools lack the flexibility to easily generate networks that are tailor-fit for a user's application due to lack of exhaustive reaction rules, restriction to pre-computed networks, and difficulty in using the software due to lack of documentation. RESULTS Here we present Pickaxe, an open-source, flexible software that provides a user-friendly method to generate novel reaction networks. This software iteratively applies reaction rules to a set of metabolites to generate novel reactions. Users can select rules from the prepackaged JN1224min ruleset, derived from MetaCyc, or define their own custom rules. Additionally, filters are provided which allow for the pruning of a network on-the-fly based on compound and reaction properties. The filters include chemical similarity to target molecules, metabolomics, thermodynamics, and reaction feasibility filters. Example applications are given to highlight the capabilities of Pickaxe: the expansion of common biological databases with novel reactions, the generation of industrially useful chemicals from a yeast metabolome database, and the annotation of untargeted metabolomics peaks from an E. coli dataset. CONCLUSION Pickaxe predicts novel metabolic reactions and compounds, which can be used for a variety of applications. This software is open-source and available as part of the MINE Database python package ( https://pypi.org/project/minedatabase/ ) or on GitHub ( https://github.com/tyo-nu/MINE-Database ). Documentation and examples can be found on Read the Docs ( https://mine-database.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ ). Through its documentation, pre-packaged features, and customizable nature, Pickaxe allows users to generate novel reaction networks tailored to their application.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kevin M Shebek
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Jonathan Strutz
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Linda J Broadbelt
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA
| | - Keith E J Tyo
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
- Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
- Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
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21
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Segura Broncano L, Pukacz KR, Reichel-Deland V, Schlüter U, Triesch S, Weber APM. Photorespiration is the solution, not the problem. JOURNAL OF PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 2023; 282:153928. [PMID: 36780758 DOI: 10.1016/j.jplph.2023.153928] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The entry of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the biosphere is mediated by the enzyme Rubisco, which catalyzes the carboxylation of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) as the entry reaction of the Calvin Benson Bassham cycle (CBBC), leading to the formation of 2 molecules of 3-phosphoglyceric acid (3PGA) per CO2 fixed. 3PGA is reduced to triose phosphates at the expense of NADPH + H+ and ATP that are provided by the photosynthetic light reactions. Triose phosphates are the principal products of the CBBC and the precursors for almost any compound in the biosphere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laia Segura Broncano
- Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Krzysztof Robin Pukacz
- Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Vanessa Reichel-Deland
- Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Urte Schlüter
- Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Sebastian Triesch
- Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Andreas P M Weber
- Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Cluster of Excellence on Plant Science (CEPLAS), Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
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22
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Yang Y, Chaffin TA, Ahkami AH, Blumwald E, Stewart CN. Plant synthetic biology innovations for biofuels and bioproducts. Trends Biotechnol 2022; 40:1454-1468. [PMID: 36241578 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.09.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Revised: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Plant-based biosynthesis of fuels, chemicals, and materials promotes environmental sustainability, which includes decreases in greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Advances in plant synthetic biology (synbio) should improve precision and efficacy of genetic engineering for sustainability. Applicable synbio innovations include genome editing, gene circuit design, synthetic promoter development, gene stacking technologies, and the design of environmental sensors. Moreover, recent advancements in developing spatially resolved and single-cell omics contribute to the discovery and characterization of cell-type-specific mechanisms and spatiotemporal gene regulations in distinct plant tissues for the expression of cell- and tissue-specific genes, resulting in improved bioproduction. This review highlights recent plant synbio progress and new single-cell molecular profiling towards sustainable biofuel and biomaterial production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yongil Yang
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Knoxville, TN, USA; Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Timothy Alexander Chaffin
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Knoxville, TN, USA; Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Amir H Ahkami
- Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA, USA
| | - Eduardo Blumwald
- Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Charles Neal Stewart
- Center for Agricultural Synthetic Biology, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Knoxville, TN, USA; Department of Plant Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA; Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
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23
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Orsi E, Claassens NJ, Nikel PI, Lindner SN. Optimizing microbial networks through metabolic bypasses. Biotechnol Adv 2022; 60:108035. [PMID: 36096403 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2022.108035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2022] [Revised: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 09/05/2022] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Metabolism has long been considered as a relatively stiff set of biochemical reactions. This somewhat outdated and dogmatic view has been challenged over the last years, as multiple studies exposed unprecedented plasticity of metabolism by exploring rational and evolutionary modifications within the metabolic network of cell factories. Of particular importance is the emergence of metabolic bypasses, which consist of enzymatic reaction(s) that support unnatural connections between metabolic nodes. Such novel topologies can be generated through the introduction of heterologous enzymes or by upregulating native enzymes (sometimes relying on promiscuous activities thereof). Altogether, the adoption of bypasses resulted in an expansion in the capacity of the host's metabolic network, which can be harnessed for bioproduction. In this review, we discuss modifications to the canonical architecture of central carbon metabolism derived from such bypasses towards six optimization purposes: stoichiometric gain, overcoming kinetic limitations, solving thermodynamic barriers, circumventing toxic intermediates, uncoupling product synthesis from biomass formation, and altering redox cofactor specificity. The metabolic costs associated with bypass-implementation are likewise discussed, including tailoring their design towards improving bioproduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrico Orsi
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany; The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
| | - Nico J Claassens
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, Stippeneng 4, 6708 WE Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Pablo I Nikel
- The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Steffen N Lindner
- Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Mühlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany; Department of Biochemistry, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Virchowweg 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
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24
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Using synthetic biology to improve photosynthesis for sustainable food production. J Biotechnol 2022; 359:1-14. [PMID: 36126804 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2022.09.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2022] [Revised: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Photosynthesis is responsible for the primary productivity and maintenance of life on Earth, boosting biological activity and contributing to the maintenance of the environment. In the past, traditional crop improvement was considered sufficient to meet food demands, but the growing demand for food coupled with climate change has modified this scenario over the past decades. However, advances in this area have not focused on photosynthesis per se but rather on fixed carbon partitioning. In short, other approaches must be used to meet an increasing agricultural demand. Thus, several paths may be followed, from modifications in leaf shape and canopy architecture, improving metabolic pathways related to CO2 fixation, the inclusion of metabolic mechanisms from other species, and improvements in energy uptake by plants. Given the recognized importance of photosynthesis, as the basis of the primary productivity on Earth, we here present an overview of the latest advances in attempts to improve plant photosynthetic performance. We focused on points considered key to the enhancement of photosynthesis, including leaf shape development, RuBisCO reengineering, Calvin-Benson cycle optimization, light use efficiency, the introduction of the C4 cycle in C3 plants and the inclusion of other CO2 concentrating mechanisms (CCMs). We further provide compelling evidence that there is still room for further improvements. Finally, we conclude this review by presenting future perspectives and possible new directions on this subject.
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25
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Wang Q, Yang H, Cao P, Chen F, Zhao L. Biosynthetic approaches to efficient assimilation of CO2via photorespiration modification in plant chassis. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2022; 10:979627. [PMID: 36003537 PMCID: PMC9393500 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.979627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Plant chassis has emerged as the platform with great potential for bioproduction of high value-added products such as recombinant protein, vaccine and natural product. However, as the primary metabolic pathway, photorespiration results in the loss of photosynthetically fixed carbon compounds and limits the exploration of plant chassis. People are endeavored to reduce the photorespiration energy or carbon loss based on variation screening or genetic engineering. Insomuch as protein engineering of Rubisco has not resulted in the significant improvement of Rubisco specificity which is linked to the direct CO2 fixation, the biosynthetic approaches of photorespiration bypass are gaining much more attention and manifested great potentiality in conferring efficient assimilation of CO2 in plant chassis. In this review, we summarize the recent studies on the metabolic pathway design and implementation of photorespiration alternative pathway aiming to provide clues to efficiently enhance carbon fixation via the modification of photorespiration in plant chassis for bioproduction. These will benefit the development of plant synthetic metabolism for biorefineries via improvement of artificial carbon sequestration cycle, particularly for the mitigation of serious challenges such as extreme climate change, food and energy shortages in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qing Wang
- Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
- National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin, China
| | - Hao Yang
- Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
- National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin, China
- College of Biotechnology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China
| | - Peijian Cao
- China Tobacco Gene Research Center, Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute of CNTC, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Fangjian Chen
- Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
- National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin, China
| | - Lei Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
- National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin, China
- *Correspondence: Lei Zhao,
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26
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Matsumura I, Patrick WM. Dan Tawfik's Lessons for Protein Engineers about Enzymes Adapting to New Substrates. Biochemistry 2022; 62:158-162. [PMID: 35820168 PMCID: PMC9851151 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.2c00230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
Natural evolution has been creating new complex systems for billions of years. The process is spontaneous and requires neither intelligence nor moral purpose but is nevertheless difficult to understand. The late Dan Tawfik spent years studying enzymes as they adapted to recognize new substrates. Much of his work focused on gaining fundamental insights, so the practical utility of his experiments may not be obvious even to accomplished protein engineers. Here we focus on two questions fundamental to any directed evolution experiment. Which proteins are the best starting points for such experiments? Which trait(s) of the chosen parental protein should be evolved to achieve the desired outcome? We summarize Tawfik's contributions to our understanding of these problems, to honor his memory and encourage those unfamiliar with his ideas to read his publications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ichiro Matsumura
- O.
Wayne Rollins Research Center, 1510 Clifton Road NE, Room 4001, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States,E-mail:
| | - Wayne M. Patrick
- Centre
for Biodiscovery, School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6012, New Zealand,E-mail:
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27
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Sharwood RE, Quick WP, Sargent D, Estavillo GM, Silva-Perez V, Furbank RT. Mining for allelic gold: finding genetic variation in photosynthetic traits in crops and wild relatives. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 2022; 73:3085-3108. [PMID: 35274686 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erac081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Improvement of photosynthetic traits in crops to increase yield potential and crop resilience has recently become a major breeding target. Synthetic biology and genetic technologies offer unparalleled opportunities to create new genetics for photosynthetic traits driven by existing fundamental knowledge. However, large 'gene bank' collections of germplasm comprising historical collections of crop species and their relatives offer a wealth of opportunities to find novel allelic variation in the key steps of photosynthesis, to identify new mechanisms and to accelerate genetic progress in crop breeding programmes. Here we explore the available genetic resources in food and fibre crops, strategies to selectively target allelic variation in genes underpinning key photosynthetic processes, and deployment of this variation via gene editing in modern elite material.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert E Sharwood
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, NSW, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - W Paul Quick
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
| | - Demi Sargent
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Richmond, NSW, Australia
| | | | | | - Robert T Furbank
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
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28
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Drincovich MF, Maurino VG. Adjustments of carbon allocation and stomatal dynamics by target localized strategies to increase crop productivity under changing climates. JOURNAL OF PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 2022; 272:153685. [PMID: 35364488 DOI: 10.1016/j.jplph.2022.153685] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2021] [Revised: 03/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Increasing crop productivity to ensure food security for future generations is one of the greatest challenges in current plant research. This challenge is even greater due to global climate changes, as enhancing crop yields must occur against the backdrop of increasingly changing environments, particularly rising temperatures and water constraints. Global crop yield growth depends on an improved dynamic balance between carbon and water usage. Here we discuss different approaches that highlight the role of vascular tissue and guard cells in attempting to mitigate the carbon-water trade-off. We argue that crop engineering in the future will require the incorporation of a combination of improved traits. Since targeted gene modifications generally produce fewer undesirable pleiotropic effects than constitutive modifications, we envision that modifications of specific cell types, such as phloem companion cells and guard cells, represent an effective approach for adding beneficial gene modifications in the same plant. This approach will enable trait stacking to design future crops with both high yield and resilience to various climate change stresses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria F Drincovich
- Centro de Estudios Fotosintéticos y Bioquímicos (CEFOBI-CONICET), Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, University of Rosario, Rosario, Argentina.
| | - Veronica G Maurino
- Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
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29
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Khersonsky O, Fleishman SJ. What Have We Learned from Design of Function in Large Proteins? BIODESIGN RESEARCH 2022; 2022:9787581. [PMID: 37850148 PMCID: PMC10521758 DOI: 10.34133/2022/9787581] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The overarching goal of computational protein design is to gain complete control over protein structure and function. The majority of sophisticated binders and enzymes, however, are large and exhibit diverse and complex folds that defy atomistic design calculations. Encouragingly, recent strategies that combine evolutionary constraints from natural homologs with atomistic calculations have significantly improved design accuracy. In these approaches, evolutionary constraints mitigate the risk from misfolding and aggregation, focusing atomistic design calculations on a small but highly enriched sequence subspace. Such methods have dramatically optimized diverse proteins, including vaccine immunogens, enzymes for sustainable chemistry, and proteins with therapeutic potential. The new generation of deep learning-based ab initio structure predictors can be combined with these methods to extend the scope of protein design, in principle, to any natural protein of known sequence. We envision that protein engineering will come to rely on completely computational methods to efficiently discover and optimize biomolecular activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olga Khersonsky
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
| | - Sarel J. Fleishman
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
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30
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Rajakumara E, Abhishek S, Nitin K, Saniya D, Bajaj P, Schwaneberg U, Davari MD. Structure and Cooperativity in Substrate-Enzyme Interactions: Perspectives on Enzyme Engineering and Inhibitor Design. ACS Chem Biol 2022; 17:266-280. [PMID: 35041385 DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.1c00500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Enzyme-based synthetic chemistry provides a green way to synthesize industrially important chemical scaffolds and provides incomparable substrate specificity and unmatched stereo-, regio-, and chemoselective product formation. However, using biocatalysts at an industrial scale has its challenges, like their narrow substrate scope, limited stability in large-scale one-pot reactions, and low expression levels. These limitations can be overcome by engineering and fine-tuning these biocatalysts using advanced protein engineering methods. A detailed understanding of the enzyme structure and catalytic mechanism and its structure-function relationship, cooperativity in binding of substrates, and dynamics of substrate-enzyme-cofactor complexes is essential for rational enzyme engineering for a specific purpose. This Review covers all these aspects along with an in-depth categorization of various industrially and pharmaceutically crucial bisubstrate enzymes based on their reaction mechanisms and their active site and substrate/cofactor-binding site structures. As the bisubstrate enzymes constitute around 60% of the known industrially important enzymes, studying their mechanism of actions and structure-activity relationship gives significant insight into deciding the targets for protein engineering for developing industrial biocatalysts. Thus, this Review is focused on providing a comprehensive knowledge of the bisubstrate enzymes' structure, their mechanisms, and protein engineering approaches to develop them into industrial biocatalysts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eerappa Rajakumara
- Macromolecular Structural Biology Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Sangareddy, Telangana 502285, India
| | - Suman Abhishek
- Macromolecular Structural Biology Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Sangareddy, Telangana 502285, India
| | - Kulhar Nitin
- Macromolecular Structural Biology Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Sangareddy, Telangana 502285, India
| | - Dubey Saniya
- Macromolecular Structural Biology Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Kandi, Sangareddy, Telangana 502285, India
| | - Priyanka Bajaj
- National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), NH-44, Balanagar, Hyderabad 500037, India
| | - Ulrich Schwaneberg
- Institute of Biotechnology, RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 3, 52074 Aachen, Germany
- DWI-Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, Forckenbeckstraße 50, 52074 Aachen, Germany
| | - Mehdi D. Davari
- Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Weinberg 3, 06120 Halle, Germany
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31
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Lohani N, Singh MB, Bhalla PL. Biological Parts for Engineering Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants. BIODESIGN RESEARCH 2022; 2022:9819314. [PMID: 37850130 PMCID: PMC10521667 DOI: 10.34133/2022/9819314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2021] [Accepted: 12/17/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
It is vital to ramp up crop production dramatically by 2050 due to the increasing global population and demand for food. However, with the climate change projections showing that droughts and heatwaves becoming common in much of the globe, there is a severe threat of a sharp decline in crop yields. Thus, developing crop varieties with inbuilt genetic tolerance to environmental stresses is urgently needed. Selective breeding based on genetic diversity is not keeping up with the growing demand for food and feed. However, the emergence of contemporary plant genetic engineering, genome-editing, and synthetic biology offer precise tools for developing crops that can sustain productivity under stress conditions. Here, we summarize the systems biology-level understanding of regulatory pathways involved in perception, signalling, and protective processes activated in response to unfavourable environmental conditions. The potential role of noncoding RNAs in the regulation of abiotic stress responses has also been highlighted. Further, examples of imparting abiotic stress tolerance by genetic engineering are discussed. Additionally, we provide perspectives on the rational design of abiotic stress tolerance through synthetic biology and list various bioparts that can be used to design synthetic gene circuits whose stress-protective functions can be switched on/off in response to environmental cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neeta Lohani
- Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Mohan B. Singh
- Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Prem L. Bhalla
- Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
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32
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Yang X, Liu D, Lu H, Weston DJ, Chen JG, Muchero W, Martin S, Liu Y, Hassan MM, Yuan G, Kalluri UC, Tschaplinski TJ, Mitchell JC, Wullschleger SD, Tuskan GA. Biological Parts for Plant Biodesign to Enhance Land-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal. BIODESIGN RESEARCH 2021; 2021:9798714. [PMID: 37849951 PMCID: PMC10521660 DOI: 10.34133/2021/9798714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2021] [Accepted: 11/07/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
A grand challenge facing society is climate change caused mainly by rising CO2 concentration in Earth's atmosphere. Terrestrial plants are linchpins in global carbon cycling, with a unique capability of capturing CO2 via photosynthesis and translocating captured carbon to stems, roots, and soils for long-term storage. However, many researchers postulate that existing land plants cannot meet the ambitious requirement for CO2 removal to mitigate climate change in the future due to low photosynthetic efficiency, limited carbon allocation for long-term storage, and low suitability for the bioeconomy. To address these limitations, there is an urgent need for genetic improvement of existing plants or construction of novel plant systems through biosystems design (or biodesign). Here, we summarize validated biological parts (e.g., protein-encoding genes and noncoding RNAs) for biological engineering of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) traits in terrestrial plants to accelerate land-based decarbonization in bioenergy plantations and agricultural settings and promote a vibrant bioeconomy. Specifically, we first summarize the framework of plant-based CDR (e.g., CO2 capture, translocation, storage, and conversion to value-added products). Then, we highlight some representative biological parts, with experimental evidence, in this framework. Finally, we discuss challenges and strategies for the identification and curation of biological parts for CDR engineering in plants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaohan Yang
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Degao Liu
- Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, Center for Precision Plant Genomics, and Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA
| | - Haiwei Lu
- Department of Academic Education, Central Community College-Hastings, Hastings, NE 68902USA
| | - David J. Weston
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Jin-Gui Chen
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Wellington Muchero
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Stanton Martin
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Yang Liu
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Md Mahmudul Hassan
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Guoliang Yuan
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Udaya C. Kalluri
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Timothy J. Tschaplinski
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Julie C. Mitchell
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Stan D. Wullschleger
- Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
| | - Gerald A. Tuskan
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
- The Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
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33
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Wang J, Anderson K, Yang E, He L, Lidstrom ME. Enzyme engineering and in vivo testing of a formate reduction pathway. Synth Biol (Oxf) 2021; 6:ysab020. [PMID: 34651085 PMCID: PMC8511477 DOI: 10.1093/synbio/ysab020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2021] [Revised: 07/08/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Formate is an attractive feedstock for sustainable microbial production of fuels and chemicals, but its potential is limited by the lack of efficient assimilation pathways. The reduction of formate to formaldehyde would allow efficient downstream assimilation, but no efficient enzymes are known for this transformation. To develop a 2-step formate reduction pathway, we screened natural variants of acyl-CoA synthetase (ACS) and acylating aldehyde dehydrogenase (ACDH) for activity on one-carbon substrates and identified active and highly expressed homologs of both enzymes. We then performed directed evolution, increasing ACDH-specific activity by 2.5-fold and ACS lysate activity by 5-fold. To test for the in vivo activity of our pathway, we expressed it in a methylotroph which can natively assimilate formaldehyde. Although the enzymes were active in cell extracts, we could not detect formate assimilation into biomass, indicating that further improvement will be required for formatotrophy. Our work provides a foundation for further development of a versatile pathway for formate assimilation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jue Wang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, DC, USA
| | - Karl Anderson
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, DC, USA
| | - Ellen Yang
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, DC, USA
| | - Lian He
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, DC, USA
| | - Mary E Lidstrom
- Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, DC, USA
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34
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Bioconversion of Methanol by Synthetic Methylotrophy. ADVANCES IN BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING/BIOTECHNOLOGY 2021; 180:149-168. [PMID: 34545421 DOI: 10.1007/10_2021_176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
As an important building block in the chemical industry, methanol has become an attractive substrate in biorefinery owing to its abundance and low cost. With the development of synthetic biology, metabolic engineering of non-methylotrophy to construct synthetic methylotrophy has drawn increased attention. As for the metabolic construction of methanol assimilation pathway in some industrial hosts, several artificial methanol assimilation pathways have recently been designed and constructed based on the computer-aided design. Particularly, these artificial methanol assimilation pathways possess advantages of shorter reaction steps, stronger driving forces, and independence on oxygen. Accordingly, this chapter reviewed strategies of constructing synthetic methylotrophs, including introducing methanol metabolic modules derived from natural methylotrophs and designing artificial methanol assimilation pathways. Future challenges and prospects were also discussed.
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35
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Löwe H, Kremling A. In-Depth Computational Analysis of Natural and Artificial Carbon Fixation Pathways. BIODESIGN RESEARCH 2021; 2021:9898316. [PMID: 37849946 PMCID: PMC10521678 DOI: 10.34133/2021/9898316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2021] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
In the recent years, engineering new-to-nature CO2- and C1-fixing metabolic pathways made a leap forward. New, artificial pathways promise higher yields and activity than natural ones like the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle. The question remains how to best predict their in vivo performance and what actually makes one pathway "better" than another. In this context, we explore aerobic carbon fixation pathways by a computational approach and compare them based on their specific activity and yield on methanol, formate, and CO2/H2 considering the kinetics and thermodynamics of the reactions. Besides pathways found in nature or implemented in the laboratory, this included two completely new cycles with favorable features: the reductive citramalyl-CoA cycle and the 2-hydroxyglutarate-reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle. A comprehensive kinetic data set was collected for all enzymes of all pathways, and missing kinetic data were sampled with the Parameter Balancing algorithm. Kinetic and thermodynamic data were fed to the Enzyme Cost Minimization algorithm to check for respective inconsistencies and calculate pathway-specific activities. The specific activities of the reductive glycine pathway, the CETCH cycle, and the new reductive citramalyl-CoA cycle were predicted to match the best natural cycles with superior product-substrate yield. However, the CBB cycle performed better in terms of activity compared to the alternative pathways than previously thought. We make an argument that stoichiometric yield is likely not the most important design criterion of the CBB cycle. Still, alternative carbon fixation pathways were paretooptimal for specific activity and product-substrate yield in simulations with C1 substrates and CO2/H2 and therefore hold great potential for future applications in Industrial Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannes Löwe
- Systems Biotechnology, Technical University of Munich, Germany
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36
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Gupta D, Sharma G, Saraswat P, Ranjan R. Synthetic Biology in Plants, a Boon for Coming Decades. Mol Biotechnol 2021; 63:1138-1154. [PMID: 34420149 DOI: 10.1007/s12033-021-00386-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
Recently an enormous expansion of knowledge is seen in various disciplines of science. This surge of information has given rise to concept of interdisciplinary fields, which has resulted in emergence of newer research domains, one of them is 'Synthetic Biology' (SynBio). It captures basics from core biology and integrates it with concepts from the other areas of study such as chemical, electrical, and computational sciences. The essence of synthetic biology is to rewire, re-program, and re-create natural biological pathways, which are carried through genetic circuits. A genetic circuit is a functional assembly of basic biological entities (DNA, RNA, proteins), created using typical design, built, and test cycles. These circuits allow scientists to engineer nearly all biological systems for various useful purposes. The development of sophisticated molecular tools, techniques, genomic programs, and ease of nucleic acid synthesis have further fueled several innovative application of synthetic biology in areas like molecular medicines, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, drug discovery, metabolomics, developing plant biosensors, utilization of prokaryotic systems for metabolite production, and CRISPR/Cas9 in the crop improvement. These applications have largely been dominated by utilization of prokaryotic systems. However, newer researches have indicated positive growth of SynBio for the eukaryotic systems as well. This paper explores advances of synthetic biology in the plant field by elaborating on its core components and potential applications. Here, we have given a comprehensive idea of designing, development, and utilization of synthetic biology in the improvement of the present research state of plant system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dipinte Gupta
- Plant Biotechnology Lab, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed to be University), Dayalbagh, Agra, 282005, India
| | - Gauri Sharma
- Plant Biotechnology Lab, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed to be University), Dayalbagh, Agra, 282005, India
| | - Pooja Saraswat
- Plant Biotechnology Lab, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed to be University), Dayalbagh, Agra, 282005, India
| | - Rajiv Ranjan
- Plant Biotechnology Lab, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed to be University), Dayalbagh, Agra, 282005, India.
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37
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Gascoyne JL, Bommareddy RR, Heeb S, Malys N. Engineering Cupriavidus necator H16 for the autotrophic production of (R)-1,3-butanediol. Metab Eng 2021; 67:262-276. [PMID: 34224897 PMCID: PMC8449065 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2021.06.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2021] [Revised: 06/08/2021] [Accepted: 06/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Butanediols are widely used in the synthesis of polymers, specialty chemicals and important chemical intermediates. Optically pure R-form of 1,3-butanediol (1,3-BDO) is required for the synthesis of several industrial compounds and as a key intermediate of β-lactam antibiotic production. The (R)-1,3-BDO can only be produced by application of a biocatalytic process. Cupriavidus necator H16 is an established production host for biosynthesis of biodegradable polymer poly-3-hydroxybutryate (PHB) via acetyl-CoA intermediate. Therefore, the utilisation of acetyl-CoA or its upstream precursors offers a promising strategy for engineering biosynthesis of value-added products such as (R)-1,3-BDO in this bacterium. Notably, C. necator H16 is known for its natural capacity to fix carbon dioxide (CO2) using hydrogen as an electron donor. Here, we report engineering of this facultative lithoautotrophic bacterium for heterotrophic and autotrophic production of (R)-1,3-BDO. Implementation of (R)-3-hydroxybutyraldehyde-CoA- and pyruvate-dependent biosynthetic pathways in combination with abolishing PHB biosynthesis and reducing flux through the tricarboxylic acid cycle enabled to engineer strain, which produced 2.97 g/L of (R)-1,3-BDO and achieved production rate of nearly 0.4 Cmol Cmol−1 h−1 autotrophically. This is first report of (R)-1,3-BDO production from CO2. Engineering of chemolithoautotroph C. necator H16 for (R)-1,3-butanediol production. Implementation of (R)-3-hydroxybutyraldehyde-CoA- and pyruvate-dependent pathways for (R)-1,3-butanediol biosynthesis. Redirecting carbon flux for (R)-1,3-butanediol biosynthesis. Achieved 2.97 g/L of (R)-1,3-butanediol with production rate of nearly 0.4 Cmol/(Cmol h) autotrophically. First report of (R)-1,3-butanediol production from carbon dioxide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Luke Gascoyne
- BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC), School of Life Sciences, Biodiscovery Institute, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
| | - Rajesh Reddy Bommareddy
- BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC), School of Life Sciences, Biodiscovery Institute, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
| | - Stephan Heeb
- BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC), School of Life Sciences, Biodiscovery Institute, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
| | - Naglis Malys
- BBSRC/EPSRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre (SBRC), School of Life Sciences, Biodiscovery Institute, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom.
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38
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Integrating thermodynamic and enzymatic constraints into genome-scale metabolic models. Metab Eng 2021; 67:133-144. [PMID: 34174426 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2021.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Revised: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Stoichiometric genome-scale metabolic network models (GEMs) have been widely used to predict metabolic phenotypes. In addition to stoichiometric ratios, other constraints such as enzyme availability and thermodynamic feasibility can also limit the phenotype solution space. Extended GEM models considering either enzymatic or thermodynamic constraints have been shown to improve prediction accuracy. In this paper, we propose a novel method that integrates both enzymatic and thermodynamic constraints in a single Pyomo modeling framework (ETGEMs). We applied this method to construct the EcoETM (E. coli metabolic model with enzymatic and thermodynamic constraints). Using this model, we calculated the optimal pathways for cellular growth and the production of 22 metabolites. When comparing the results with those of iML1515 and models with one of the two constraints, we observed that many thermodynamically unfavorable and/or high enzyme cost pathways were excluded from EcoETM. For example, the synthesis pathway of carbamoyl-phosphate (Cbp) from iML1515 is both thermodynamically unfavorable and enzymatically costly. After introducing the new constraints, the production pathways and yields of several Cbp-derived products (e.g. L-arginine, orotate) calculated using EcoETM were more realistic. The results of this study demonstrate the great application potential of metabolic models with multiple constraints for pathway analysis and phenotype prediction.
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Roda S, Robles-Martín A, Xiang R, Kazemi M, Guallar V. Structural-Based Modeling in Protein Engineering. A Must Do. J Phys Chem B 2021; 125:6491-6500. [PMID: 34106727 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c02545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Biotechnological solutions will be a key aspect in our immediate future society, where optimized enzymatic processes through enzyme engineering might be an important solution for waste transformation, clean energy production, biodegradable materials, and green chemistry, for example. Here we advocate the importance of structural-based bioinformatics and molecular modeling tools in such developments. We summarize our recent experiences indicating a great prediction/success ratio, and we suggest that an early in silico phase should be performed in enzyme engineering studies. Moreover, we demonstrate the potential of a new technique combining Rosetta and PELE, which could provide a faster and more automated procedure, an essential aspect for a broader use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergi Roda
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona 08034, Spain
| | | | - Ruite Xiang
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona 08034, Spain
| | - Masoud Kazemi
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona 08034, Spain
| | - Victor Guallar
- Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona 08034, Spain.,Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona 08010, Spain
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40
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Scherer M, Fleishman SJ, Jones PR, Dandekar T, Bencurova E. Computational Enzyme Engineering Pipelines for Optimized Production of Renewable Chemicals. Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2021; 9:673005. [PMID: 34211966 PMCID: PMC8239229 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.673005] [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: 02/26/2021] [Accepted: 05/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
To enable a sustainable supply of chemicals, novel biotechnological solutions are required that replace the reliance on fossil resources. One potential solution is to utilize tailored biosynthetic modules for the metabolic conversion of CO2 or organic waste to chemicals and fuel by microorganisms. Currently, it is challenging to commercialize biotechnological processes for renewable chemical biomanufacturing because of a lack of highly active and specific biocatalysts. As experimental methods to engineer biocatalysts are time- and cost-intensive, it is important to establish efficient and reliable computational tools that can speed up the identification or optimization of selective, highly active, and stable enzyme variants for utilization in the biotechnological industry. Here, we review and suggest combinations of effective state-of-the-art software and online tools available for computational enzyme engineering pipelines to optimize metabolic pathways for the biosynthesis of renewable chemicals. Using examples relevant for biotechnology, we explain the underlying principles of enzyme engineering and design and illuminate future directions for automated optimization of biocatalysts for the assembly of synthetic metabolic pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Scherer
- Department of Bioinformatics, Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Sarel J Fleishman
- Department of Biomolecular Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Patrik R Jones
- Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas Dandekar
- Department of Bioinformatics, Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Elena Bencurova
- Department of Bioinformatics, Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
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41
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Mao Y, Yuan Q, Yang X, Liu P, Cheng Y, Luo J, Liu H, Yao Y, Sun H, Cai T, Ma H. Non-natural Aldol Reactions Enable the Design and Construction of Novel One-Carbon Assimilation Pathways in vitro. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:677596. [PMID: 34149668 PMCID: PMC8208507 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.677596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2021] [Accepted: 05/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Methylotrophs utilizes cheap, abundant one-carbon compounds, offering a promising green, sustainable and economical alternative to current sugar-based biomanufacturing. However, natural one-carbon assimilation pathways come with many disadvantages, such as complicated reaction steps, the need for additional energy and/or reducing power, or loss of CO2, resulting in unsatisfactory biomanufacturing performance. Here, we predicted eight simple, novel and carbon-conserving formaldehyde (FALD) assimilation pathways based on the extended metabolic network with non-natural aldol reactions using the comb-flux balance analysis (FBA) algorithm. Three of these pathways were found to be independent of energy/reducing equivalents, and thus chosen for further experimental verification. Then, two novel aldol reactions, condensing D-erythrose 4-phosphate and glycolaldehyde (GALD) into 2R,3R-stereo allose 6-phosphate by DeoC or 2S,3R-stereo altrose 6-phosphate by TalBF178Y/Fsa, were identified for the first time. Finally, a novel FALD assimilation pathway proceeding via allose 6-phosphate, named as the glycolaldehyde-allose 6-phosphate assimilation (GAPA) pathway, was constructed in vitro with a high carbon yield of 94%. This work provides an elegant paradigm for systematic design of one-carbon assimilation pathways based on artificial aldolase (ALS) reactions, which could also be feasibly adapted for the mining of other metabolic pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yufeng Mao
- Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China.,Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
| | - Qianqian Yuan
- Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China.,Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
| | - Xue Yang
- Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China.,Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
| | - Pi Liu
- Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China.,Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
| | - Ying Cheng
- State Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China
| | - Jiahao Luo
- Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
| | - Huanhuan Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, China
| | - Yonghong Yao
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
| | - Hongbing Sun
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
| | - Tao Cai
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
| | - Hongwu Ma
- Biodesign Center, Key Laboratory of Systems Microbial Biotechnology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China.,Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China
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42
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Kaul S, Choudhary M, Gupta S, Dhar MK. Engineering Host Microbiome for Crop Improvement and Sustainable Agriculture. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:635917. [PMID: 34122359 PMCID: PMC8193672 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.635917] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Accepted: 04/16/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Dynamic consortium of microbial communities (bacteria, fungi, protists, viruses, and nematodes) colonizing multiple tissue types and coevolving conclusively with the host plant is designated as a plant microbiome. The interplay between plant and its microbial mutualists supports several agronomic functions, establishing its crucial role in plant beneficial activities. Deeper functional and mechanistic understanding of plant-microbial ecosystems will render many "ecosystem services" by emulating symbiotic interactions between plants, soil, and microbes for enhanced productivity and sustainability. Therefore, microbiome engineering represents an emerging biotechnological tool to directly add, remove, or modify properties of microbial communities for higher specificity and efficacy. The main goal of microbiome engineering is enhancement of plant functions such as biotic/abiotic stresses, plant fitness and productivities, etc. Various ecological-, biochemical-, and molecular-based approaches have come up as a new paradigm for disentangling many microbiome-based agromanagement hurdles. Furthermore, multidisciplinary approaches provide a predictive framework in achieving a reliable and sustainably engineered plant-microbiome for stress physiology, nutrient recycling, and high-yielding disease-resistant genotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sanjana Kaul
- School of Biotechnology, University of Jammu, Jammu, India
| | | | - Suruchi Gupta
- School of Biotechnology, University of Jammu, Jammu, India
| | - Manoj K Dhar
- School of Biotechnology, University of Jammu, Jammu, India
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43
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Abstract
Plants depend on the enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) for CO2 fixation. However, especially in C3 plants, photosynthetic yield is reduced by formation of 2-phosphoglycolate, a toxic oxygenation product of Rubisco, which needs to be recycled in a high-flux-demanding metabolic process called photorespiration. Canonical photorespiration dissipates energy and causes carbon and nitrogen losses. Reducing photorespiration through carbon-concentrating mechanisms, such as C4 photosynthesis, or bypassing photorespiration through metabolic engineering is expected to improve plant growth and yield. The β-hydroxyaspartate cycle (BHAC) is a recently described microbial pathway that converts glyoxylate, a metabolite of plant photorespiration, into oxaloacetate in a highly efficient carbon-, nitrogen-, and energy-conserving manner. Here, we engineered a functional BHAC in plant peroxisomes to create a photorespiratory bypass that is independent of 3-phosphoglycerate regeneration or decarboxylation of photorespiratory precursors. While efficient oxaloacetate conversion in Arabidopsis thaliana still masks the full potential of the BHAC, nitrogen conservation and accumulation of signature C4 metabolites demonstrate the proof of principle, opening the door to engineering a photorespiration-dependent synthetic carbon-concentrating mechanism in C3 plants.
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Kriegel M, Wiederanders HJ, Alkhashrom S, Eichler J, Muller YA. A PROSS-designed extensively mutated estrogen receptor α variant displays enhanced thermal stability while retaining native allosteric regulation and structure. Sci Rep 2021; 11:10509. [PMID: 34006920 PMCID: PMC8131754 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-89785-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2021] [Accepted: 04/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Protein stability limitations often hamper the exploration of proteins as drug targets. Here, we show that the application of PROSS server algorithms to the ligand-binding domain of human estrogen receptor alpha (hERα) enabled the development of variant ERPRS* that comprises 24 amino acid substitutions and exhibits multiple improved characteristics. The protein displays enhanced production rates in E. coli, crystallizes readily and its thermal stability is increased significantly by 23 °C. hERα is a nuclear receptor (NR) family member. In NRs, protein function is allosterically regulated by its interplay with small molecule effectors and the interaction with coregulatory proteins. The in-depth characterization of ERPRS* shows that these cooperative effects are fully preserved despite that 10% of all residues were substituted. Crystal structures reveal several salient features, i.e. the introduction of a tyrosine corner in a helix-loop-helix segment and the formation of a novel surface salt bridge network possibly explaining the enhanced thermal stability. ERPRS* shows that prior successes in computational approaches for stabilizing proteins can be extended to proteins with complex allosteric regulatory behaviors as present in NRs. Since NRs including hERα are implicated in multiple diseases, our ERPRS* variant shows significant promise for facilitating the development of novel hERα modulators.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark Kriegel
- Division of Biotechnology, Department of Biology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Hanna J Wiederanders
- Division of Biotechnology, Department of Biology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Sewar Alkhashrom
- Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Jutta Eichler
- Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany
| | - Yves A Muller
- Division of Biotechnology, Department of Biology, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany.
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Kuhnert F, Schlüter U, Linka N, Eisenhut M. Transport Proteins Enabling Plant Photorespiratory Metabolism. PLANTS 2021; 10:plants10050880. [PMID: 33925393 PMCID: PMC8146403 DOI: 10.3390/plants10050880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2021] [Revised: 04/19/2021] [Accepted: 04/20/2021] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Photorespiration (PR) is a metabolic repair pathway that acts in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms to degrade a toxic product of oxygen fixation generated by the enzyme ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase. Within the metabolic pathway, energy is consumed and carbon dioxide released. Consequently, PR is seen as a wasteful process making it a promising target for engineering to enhance plant productivity. Transport and channel proteins connect the organelles accomplishing the PR pathway-chloroplast, peroxisome, and mitochondrion-and thus enable efficient flux of PR metabolites. Although the pathway and the enzymes catalyzing the biochemical reactions have been the focus of research for the last several decades, the knowledge about transport proteins involved in PR is still limited. This review presents a timely state of knowledge with regard to metabolite channeling in PR and the participating proteins. The significance of transporters for implementation of synthetic bypasses to PR is highlighted. As an excursion, the physiological contribution of transport proteins that are involved in C4 metabolism is discussed.
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46
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Aleku GA, Roberts GW, Titchiner GR, Leys D. Synthetic Enzyme-Catalyzed CO 2 Fixation Reactions. CHEMSUSCHEM 2021; 14:1781-1804. [PMID: 33631048 PMCID: PMC8252502 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202100159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2021] [Revised: 02/25/2021] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, (de)carboxylases that catalyze reversible (de)carboxylation have been targeted for application as carboxylation catalysts. This has led to the development of proof-of-concept (bio)synthetic CO2 fixation routes for chemical production. However, further progress towards industrial application has been hampered by the thermodynamic constraint that accompanies fixing CO2 to organic molecules. In this Review, biocatalytic carboxylation methods are discussed with emphases on the diverse strategies devised to alleviate the inherent thermodynamic constraints and their application in synthetic CO2 -fixation cascades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Godwin A. Aleku
- Department of BiochemistryUniversity of Cambridge80 Tennis Court RoadCambridgeCB2 1GAUK
| | - George W. Roberts
- Manchester Institute of BiotechnologyDepartment of ChemistryUniversity of Manchester131 Princess StreetManchesterM1 7DNUK
| | - Gabriel R. Titchiner
- Manchester Institute of BiotechnologyDepartment of ChemistryUniversity of Manchester131 Princess StreetManchesterM1 7DNUK
| | - David Leys
- Manchester Institute of BiotechnologyDepartment of ChemistryUniversity of Manchester131 Princess StreetManchesterM1 7DNUK
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47
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Moore CE, Meacham-Hensold K, Lemonnier P, Slattery RA, Benjamin C, Bernacchi CJ, Lawson T, Cavanagh AP. The effect of increasing temperature on crop photosynthesis: from enzymes to ecosystems. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 2021; 72:2822-2844. [PMID: 33619527 PMCID: PMC8023210 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erab090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 118] [Impact Index Per Article: 39.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2020] [Accepted: 02/19/2021] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
As global land surface temperature continues to rise and heatwave events increase in frequency, duration, and/or intensity, our key food and fuel cropping systems will likely face increased heat-related stress. A large volume of literature exists on exploring measured and modelled impacts of rising temperature on crop photosynthesis, from enzymatic responses within the leaf up to larger ecosystem-scale responses that reflect seasonal and interannual crop responses to heat. This review discusses (i) how crop photosynthesis changes with temperature at the enzymatic scale within the leaf; (ii) how stomata and plant transport systems are affected by temperature; (iii) what features make a plant susceptible or tolerant to elevated temperature and heat stress; and (iv) how these temperature and heat effects compound at the ecosystem scale to affect crop yields. Throughout the review, we identify current advancements and future research trajectories that are needed to make our cropping systems more resilient to rising temperature and heat stress, which are both projected to occur due to current global fossil fuel emissions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caitlin E Moore
- School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia
- Institute for Sustainability, Energy & Environment, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
- Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
| | - Katherine Meacham-Hensold
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
| | | | - Rebecca A Slattery
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
| | - Claire Benjamin
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
| | - Carl J Bernacchi
- Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
- Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit, United States Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service, Urbana, USA
- Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
| | - Tracy Lawson
- School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
| | - Amanda P Cavanagh
- Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA
- School of Life Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
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48
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Synthetic Biology Approaches To Enhance Microalgal Productivity. Trends Biotechnol 2021; 39:1019-1036. [PMID: 33541719 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2020.12.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2020] [Revised: 12/22/2020] [Accepted: 12/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
The major bottleneck in commercializing biofuels and other commodities produced by microalgae is the high cost associated with phototrophic cultivation. Improving microalgal productivities could be a solution to this problem. Synthetic biology methods have recently been used to engineer the downstream production pathways in several microalgal strains. However, engineering upstream photosynthetic and carbon fixation metabolism to enhance growth, productivity, and yield has barely been explored in microalgae. We describe strategies to improve the generation of reducing power from light, as well as to improve the assimilation of CO2 by either the native Calvin cycle or synthetic alternatives. Overall, we are optimistic that recent technological advances will prompt long-awaited breakthroughs in microalgal research.
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Janasch M, Hudson EP. CO2 fixation gets a second chance. Nat Catal 2021. [DOI: 10.1038/s41929-021-00581-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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Panich J, Fong B, Singer SW. Metabolic Engineering of Cupriavidus necator H16 for Sustainable Biofuels from CO 2. Trends Biotechnol 2021; 39:412-424. [PMID: 33518389 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2021.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2020] [Revised: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 01/06/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Decelerating global warming is one of the predominant challenges of our time and will require conversion of CO2 to usable products and commodity chemicals. Of particular interest is the production of fuels, because the transportation sector is a major source of CO2 emissions. Here, we review recent technological advances in metabolic engineering of the hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium Cupriavidus necator H16, a chemolithotroph that naturally consumes CO2 to generate biomass. We discuss recent successes in biofuel production using this organism, and the implementation of electrolysis/artificial photosynthesis approaches that enable growth of C. necator using renewable electricity and CO2. Last, we discuss prospects of improving the nonoptimal growth of C. necator in ambient concentrations of CO2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin Panich
- Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
| | - Bonnie Fong
- Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Steven W Singer
- Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
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