1
|
Kelwick R, Ricci L, Chee SM, Bell D, Webb AJ, Freemont PS. Cell-free prototyping strategies for enhancing the sustainable production of polyhydroxyalkanoates bioplastics. Synth Biol (Oxf) 2018; 3:ysy016. [PMID: 32995523 PMCID: PMC7445755 DOI: 10.1093/synbio/ysy016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2017] [Revised: 07/29/2018] [Accepted: 08/21/2018] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
The polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are microbially-produced biopolymers that could potentially be used as sustainable alternatives to oil-derived plastics. However, PHAs are currently more expensive to produce than oil-derived plastics. Therefore, more efficient production processes would be desirable. Cell-free metabolic engineering strategies have already been used to optimize several biosynthetic pathways and we envisioned that cell-free strategies could be used for optimizing PHAs biosynthetic pathways. To this end, we developed several Escherichia coli cell-free systems for in vitro prototyping PHAs biosynthetic operons, and also for screening relevant metabolite recycling enzymes. Furthermore, we customized our cell-free reactions through the addition of whey permeate, an industrial waste that has been previously used to optimize in vivo PHAs production. We found that the inclusion of an optimal concentration of whey permeate enhanced relative cell-free GFPmut3b production by approximately 50%. In cell-free transcription-translation prototyping reactions, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry quantification of cell-free 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) production revealed differences between the activities of the Native ΔPhaC_C319A (1.18 ± 0.39 µM), C104 ΔPhaC_C319A (4.62 ± 1.31 µM) and C101 ΔPhaC_C319A (2.65 ± 1.27 µM) phaCAB operons that were tested. Interestingly, the most active operon, C104 produced higher levels of PHAs (or PHAs monomers) than the Native phaCAB operon in both in vitro and in vivo assays. Coupled cell-free biotransformation/transcription-translation reactions produced greater yields of 3HB (32.87 ± 6.58 µM), and these reactions were also used to characterize a Clostridium propionicum Acetyl-CoA recycling enzyme. Together, these data demonstrate that cell-free approaches complement in vivo workflows for identifying additional strategies for optimizing PHAs production.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Richard Kelwick
- Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Luca Ricci
- Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Soo Mei Chee
- Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
- The London DNA Foundry, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - David Bell
- Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
- The London DNA Foundry, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Alexander J Webb
- Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Paul S Freemont
- Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK
- Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London, London, UK
- The London DNA Foundry, Imperial College London, London, UK
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Chang HJ, Voyvodic PL, Zúñiga A, Bonnet J. Microbially derived biosensors for diagnosis, monitoring and epidemiology. Microb Biotechnol 2017; 10:1031-1035. [PMID: 28771944 PMCID: PMC5609271 DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.12791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2017] [Accepted: 07/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Living cells have evolved to detect and process various signals and can self-replicate, presenting an attractive platform for engineering scalable and affordable biosensing devices. Microbes are perfect candidates: they are inexpensive and easy to manipulate and store. Recent advances in synthetic biology promise to streamline the engineering of microbial biosensors with unprecedented capabilities. Here we review the applications of microbially-derived biosensors with a focus on environmental monitoring and healthcare applications. We also identify critical challenges that need to be addressed in order to translate the potential of synthetic microbial biosensors into large-scale, real-world applications.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hung-Ju Chang
- Centre de Biochimie Structurale, INSERM U1054, CNRS UMR5048, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Peter L Voyvodic
- Centre de Biochimie Structurale, INSERM U1054, CNRS UMR5048, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Ana Zúñiga
- Centre de Biochimie Structurale, INSERM U1054, CNRS UMR5048, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| | - Jérôme Bonnet
- Centre de Biochimie Structurale, INSERM U1054, CNRS UMR5048, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Webb AJ, Kelwick R, Freemont PS. Opportunities for applying whole-cell bioreporters towards parasite detection. Microb Biotechnol 2017; 10:244-249. [PMID: 28124438 PMCID: PMC5328813 DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.12604] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2016] [Revised: 12/12/2016] [Accepted: 01/02/2017] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Alexander J Webb
- Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.,Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Richard Kelwick
- Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.,Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Paul S Freemont
- Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.,Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
| |
Collapse
|