Differential activation mechanisms of two isoforms of Gcr1 transcription factor generated from spliced and un-spliced transcripts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Non-Coding RNAs: Regulators of Stress, Ageing, and Developmental Decisions in Yeast?

Cells must change their properties in order to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Most of the cellular sensing and regulatory mechanisms described so far are based on proteins that serve as sensors, signal transducers, and effectors of signalling pathways, resulting in altered cell physiology. In recent years, however, remarkable examples of the critical role of non-coding RNAs in some of these regulatory pathways have been described in various organisms. In this review, we focus on all classes of non-coding RNAs that play regulatory roles during stress response, starvation, and ageing in different yeast species as well as in structured yeast populations. Such regulation can occur, for example, by modulating the amount and functional state of tRNAs, rRNAs, or snRNAs that are directly involved in the processes of translation and splicing. In addition, long non-coding RNAs and microRNA-like molecules are bona fide regulators of the expression of their target genes. Non-coding RNAs thus represent an additional level of cellular regulation that is gradually being uncovered.

Mechanisms and biotechnological applications of transcription factors

Transcription factors play an indispensable role in maintaining cellular viability and finely regulating complex internal metabolic networks. These crucial bioactive functions rely on their ability to respond to effectors and concurrently interact with binding sites. Recent advancements have brought innovative insights into the understanding of transcription factors. In this review, we comprehensively summarize the mechanisms by which transcription factors carry out their functions, along with calculation and experimental-based methods employed in their identification. Additionally, we highlight recent achievements in the application of transcription factors in various biotechnological fields, including cell engineering, human health, and biomanufacturing. Finally, the current limitations of research and provide prospects for future investigations are discussed. This review will provide enlightening theoretical guidance for transcription factors engineering.

A New Mechanism of Carbon Metabolism and Acetic Acid Balance Regulated by CcpA

Catabolite control protein A (CcpA) is a critical regulator in Gram-positive bacteria that orchestrates carbon metabolism by coordinating the utilization of different carbon sources. Although it has been widely proved that CcpA helps prioritize the utilization of glucose over other carbon sources, this global regulator's precise mechanism of action remains unclear. In this study, a mutant Bacillus licheniformis deleted for CcpA was constructed. Cell growth, carbon utilization, metabolites and the transcription of key enzymes of the mutant strain were compared with that of the wild-type one. It was found that CcpA is involved in the regulation of glucose concentration metabolism in Bacillus. At the same time, CcpA regulates glucose metabolism by inhibiting acetic acid synthesis and pentose phosphate pathway key gene zwF. The conversion rate of acetic acid is increased by about 3.5 times after ccpA is deleted. The present study provides a new mechanism of carbon metabolism and acetic acid balance regulated by CcpA. On the one hand, this work deepens the understanding of the regulatory function of CcpA and provides a new view on the regulation of glucose metabolism. On the other hand, it is helpful to the transformation of B. licheniformis chassis microorganisms.

Rewiring regulation on respiro-fermentative metabolism relieved Crabtree effects in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The respiro-fermentative metabolism in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also called the Crabtree effect, results in lower energy efficiency and biomass yield which can impact yields of chemicals to be produced using this cell factory. Although it can be engineered to become Crabtree negative, the slow growth and glucose consumption rate limit its industrial application. Here the Crabtree effect in yeast can be alleviated by engineering the transcription factor Mth1 involved in glucose signaling and a subunit of the RNA polymerase II mediator complex Med2. It was found that the mutant with the MTH1^A81D&MED2*^432Y allele could grow in glucose rich medium with a specific growth rate of 0.30 h⁻¹, an ethanol yield of 0.10 g g⁻¹, and a biomass yield of 0.21 g g⁻¹, compared with a specific growth rate of 0.40 h⁻¹, an ethanol yield of 0.46 g g⁻¹, and a biomass yield of 0.11 g g⁻¹ in the wild-type strain CEN.PK 113-5D. Transcriptome analysis revealed significant downregulation of the glycolytic process, as well as the upregulation of the TCA cycle and the electron transfer chain. Significant expression changes of several reporter transcription factors were also identified, which might explain the higher energy efficiencies in the engineered strain. We further demonstrated the potential of the engineered strain with the production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid at a titer of 2.04 g L⁻¹, i.e., 5.4-fold higher than that of a reference strain, indicating that the alleviated glucose repression could enhance the supply of mitochondrial acetyl-CoA. These results suggested that the engineered strain could be used as an efficient cell factory for mitochondrial production of acetyl-CoA derived chemicals.

Impairment of transcription factor Gcr1p binding motif perturbs OPI3 transcription in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the transcription factor GCR1 plays a vital role in carbohydrate metabolism and in the current study we tried to elucidate its role in lipid metabolism. In silico analysis revealed the upstream activation sequence (UAS) in the promoter region of OPI3 possessed six conserved recognition sequences for Gcr1p and the ChIP assay confirmed the binding of Gcr1p on the OPI3 promoter region. The real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and promoter-reporter activity revealed a substantial reduction in OPI3 expression and was supported with decreased phosphatidylcholine (PC) level that is rescued with exogenous choline supplementation in gcr1∆ cells. Simultaneously, there was an increase in triacylglycerol level, accompanied with increased number and size of lipid droplets in gcr1∆ cells. The expression of pT1, pT2 truncations in opi3∆ cells revealed the -1 to -500 bp in the promoter region is essential for the activation of OPI3 transcription. The mutation specifically at UAS_{CT box} (-265) in the OPI3 promoter region displayed a reduction in the PC level and the additional mutation at UAS_INO (-165) further reduced the PC level. Collectively, our data suggest that the GCR1 transcription factor also regulates the OPI3 expression and has an impact on lipid homeostasis.

Efficient production of shinorine, a natural sunscreen material, from glucose and xylose by deleting HXK2 encoding hexokinase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs), microbial secondary metabolites with ultraviolet (UV) absorption properties, are promising natural sunscreen materials. Due to the low efficiency of extracting MAAs from natural producers, production in heterologous hosts has recently received attention. Shinorine is a well characterized MAA with strong UV-A absorption property. Previous, we developed Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain producing shinorine by introducing four shinorine biosynthetic genes from cyanobacterium Nostoc punctiforme. Shinorine is produced from sedoheptulose 7-phosphate (S7P), an intermediate in the pentose phosphate pathway. Shinorine production was greatly improved by using xylose as a co-substrate, which can increase the S7P pool. However, due to a limited xylose-utilizing capacity of the engineered strain, glucose was used as a co-substrate to support cell growth. In this study, we further improved shinorine production by attenuating glucose catabolism via glycolysis, which can redirect the carbon flux from glucose to the pentose phosphate pathway favoring shinorine production. Of the strategies we examined to reduce glycolytic flux, deletion of HXK2, encoding hexokinase, was most effective in increasing shinorine production. Furthermore, by additional expression of Ava3858 from Anabaena variabilis, encoding a rate-limiting enzyme 2-demethyl 4-deoxygadusol synthase, 68.4 mg/L of shinorine was produced in an optimized medium containing 14 g/L glucose and 6 g/L xylose, achieving a 2.2-fold increase compared with the previous strain.

Transcriptomic Changes Induced by Deletion of Transcriptional Regulator GCR2 on Pentose Sugar Metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Being a microbial host for lignocellulosic biofuel production, Saccharomyces cerevisiae needs to be engineered to express a heterologous xylose pathway; however, it has been challenging to optimize the engineered strain for efficient and rapid fermentation of xylose. Deletion of PHO13 (Δpho13) has been reported to be a crucial genetic perturbation in improving xylose fermentation. A confirmed mechanism of the Δpho13 effect on xylose fermentation is that the Δpho13 transcriptionally activates the genes in the non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). In the current study, we found a couple of engineered strains, of which phenotypes were not affected by Δpho13 (Δpho13-negative), among many others we examined. Genome resequencing of the Δpho13-negative strains revealed that a loss-of-function mutation in GCR2 was responsible for the phenotype. Gcr2 is a global transcriptional factor involved in glucose metabolism. The results of RNA-seq confirmed that the deletion of GCR2 (Δgcr2) led to the upregulation of PPP genes as well as downregulation of glycolytic genes, and changes were more significant under xylose conditions than those under glucose conditions. Although there was no synergistic effect between Δpho13 and Δgcr2 in improving xylose fermentation, these results suggested that GCR2 is a novel knockout target in improving lignocellulosic ethanol production.