Surface expression of ω-transaminase in Escherichia coli

Surface expression of carbonic anhydrase on E. coli as a sustainable approach for enzymatic CO2 capture

The utilisation of carbonic anhydrase (CA) in CO2 sequestration is becoming prominent as an efficient, environment friendly and rapid catalyst for capturing CO2 from industrial emissions. However, the application of CA enzyme in soluble form is constrained due to its poor stability in operational conditions of CO2 capture and also production cost of the enzyme. Addressing these limitations, the present study focuses on the surface display of CA from Bacillus halodurans (BhCA) on E coli aiming to contribute to the cost-effectiveness of carbon capture through CA technology. This involved the fusion of the BhCA-encoding gene with the adhesion molecule involved in diffuse adherence (AIDA-I) autotransporter, resulting in the efficient display of BhCA (595 ± 60 U/gram dry cell weight). Verification of the surface display of BhCA was accomplished by conjugating with FITC labelled anti-his antibody followed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and cellular fractionation in conjunction with zymography. Biochemical characterisation of whole-cell biocatalyst revealed a noteworthy enhancement in thermostability, improvement in the thermostability with T1/2 of 90 ± 1.52 minutes at 50 ˚C, 36 ± 2.51 minutes at 60 ˚C and18 ± 1.52 minutes at 80˚C. Surface displayed BhCA displayed remarkable reusability retaining 100% activity even after 15 cycles. Surface displayed BhCA displayed highly alkali stable nature like free counterpart in solution. The alkali stability of the surface-displayed BhCA was comparable to its free counterpart in solution. Furthermore, the study investigated the impact of different metal ions, modulators, and detergents on the whole-cell biocatalysts. The present work represents the first report on surface display of CA utilising the AIDA-1 autotransporter.

Whole-cell catalysis by surface display of fluorinase on Escherichia coli using N-terminal domain of ice nucleation protein

Background

Fluorinases play a unique role in the production of fluorine-containing organic molecules by biological methods. Whole-cell catalysis is a better choice in the large-scale fermentation processes, and over 60% of industrial biocatalysis uses this method. However, the in vivo catalytic efficiency of fluorinases is stuck with the mass transfer of the substrates.

Results

A gene sequence encoding a protein with fluorinase function was fused to the N-terminal of ice nucleation protein, and the fused fluorinase was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) cells. SDS-PAGE and immunofluorescence microscopy were used to demonstrate the surface localization of the fusion protein. The fluorinase displayed on the surface showed good stability while retaining the catalytic activity. The engineered E.coli with surface-displayed fluorinase could be cultured to obtain a larger cell density, which was beneficial for industrial application. And 55% yield of 5′-fluorodeoxyadenosine (5′-FDA) from S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) was achieved by using the whole-cell catalyst.

Conclusions

Here, we created the fluorinase-containing surface display system on E.coli cells for the first time. The fluorinase was successfully displayed on the surface of E.coli and maintained its catalytic activity. The surface display provides a new solution for the industrial application of biological fluorination.

Graphical Abstract

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12934-021-01697-x.

Autodisplay of an endo-1,4-β-xylanase from Clostridium cellulovorans in Escherichia coli for xylans degradation

The goal of this work was the autodisplay of the endo β-1,4-xylanase (XynA) from Clostridium cellulovorans in Escherichia coli using the AIDA system to carry out whole-cell biocatalysis and hydrolysate xylans. For this, pAIDA-xynA vector containing a synthetic xynA gene was fused to the signal peptide of the toxin subunit B Vibro cholere (ctxB) and the auto-transporter of the synthetic aida gene, which encodes for the connector peptide and β-barrel of the auto-transporter (AT-AIDA). E. coli TOP10 cells were transformed and the biocatalyst was characterized using beechwood xylans as substrate. Optimal operational conditions were temperature of 55 °C and pH 6.5, and the Michaelis-Menten catalytic constants V_max and K_m were 149 U/g_DCW and 6.01 mg/mL, respectively. Xylanase activity was inhibited by Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺ and Hg²⁺ as well as EDTA, detergents, and organic acids, and improved by Ca²⁺, Co²⁺ and Mn²⁺ ions. Ca²⁺ ion strongly enhanced the xylanolytic activity up to 2.4-fold when 5 mM CaCl₂ were added. Also, Ca²⁺ improved enzyme stability at 60 and 70 °C. Results suggest that pAIDA-xynA vector has the ability to express functional xylanase to perform whole-cell biocatalysis in order to hydrolysate xylans from hemicellulose feedstock.

Continuous removal of the model pharmaceutical chloroquine from water using melanin-covered Escherichia coli in a membrane bioreactor

Environmental release and accumulation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products is a global concern in view of increased awareness of ecotoxicological effects. Adsorbent properties make the biopolymer melanin an interesting alternative to remove micropollutants from water. Recently, tyrosinase-surface-displaying Escherichia coli was shown to be an interesting self-replicating production system for melanin-covered cells for batch-wise absorption of the model pharmaceutical chloroquine. This work explores the suitability of these melanin-covered E. coli for the continuous removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewater. A continuous-flow membrane bioreactor containing melanized E. coli cells was used for adsorption of chloroquine from the influent until saturation and subsequent regeneration. At a low loading of cells (10 g/L) and high influent concentration of chloroquine (0.1 mM), chloroquine adsorbed until saturation after 26 ± 2 treated reactor volumes (39 ± 3 L). The average effluent concentration during the first 20 h was 0.0018 mM, corresponding to 98.2% removal. Up to 140 ± 6 mg chloroquine bound per gram of cells following mixed homo- and heterogeneous adsorption kinetics. In situ low-pH regeneration released all chloroquine without apparent capacity loss over three consecutive cycles. This shows the potential of melanized cells for treatment of conventional wastewater or highly concentrated upstream sources such as hospitals or manufacturing sites.

Development of microreactors with surface-immobilized biocatalysts for continuous transamination

The industrial importance of optically pure compounds has thrown a spotlight on ω-transaminases that have shown a high potential for the synthesis of bioactive compounds with a chiral amine moiety. The implementation of biocatalysts in industrial processes relies strongly on fast and cost effective process development, including selection of a biocatalyst form and the strategy for its immobilization. Here, microscale reactors with selected surface-immobilized amine-transaminase (ATA) in various forms are described as platforms for high-throughput process development. Wild type ATA (ATA-wt) from a crude cell extract, as well as Escherichia coli cells intracellularly overexpressing the enzyme, were immobilized on the surfaces of meander microchannels of disposable plastics by means of reactor surface silanization and glutaraldehyde bonding. In addition, a silicon/glass microchannel reactor was used for immobilization of an ATA-wt, genetically engineered to contain a silica-binding module (SBM) at the N-terminus (N-SBM-ATA-wt), leading to immobilization on the non-modified inner microchannel surface. Microreactors with surface-immobilized biocatalysts were coupled with a quenching system and at-line HPLC analytics and evaluated based on continuous biotransformation, yielding acetophenone and l-alanine. E. coli cells and N-SBM-ATA-wt were efficiently immobilized and yielded a volumetric productivity of up to 14.42 g L^-1 h^-1, while ATA-wt small load resulted in two orders of magnitude lower productivity. The miniaturized reactors further enabled in-operando characterization of biocatalyst stability, crucial for successful transfer to a production scale.

Biocatalysis on the surface of Escherichia coli: melanin pigmentation of the cell exterior

Today, it is considered state-of-the-art to engineer living organisms for various biotechnology applications. Even though this has led to numerous scientific breakthroughs, the enclosed interior of bacterial cells still restricts interactions with enzymes, pathways and products due to the mass-transfer barrier formed by the cell envelope. To promote accessibility, we propose engineering of biocatalytic reactions and subsequent product deposition directly on the bacterial surface. As a proof-of-concept, we used the AIDA autotransporter vehicle for Escherichia coli surface expression of tyrosinase and fully oxidized externally added tyrosine to the biopolymer melanin. This resulted in a color change and creation of a black cell exterior. The capture of ninety percent of a pharmaceutical wastewater pollutant followed by regeneration of the cell bound melanin matrix through a simple pH change, shows the superior function and facilitated processing provided by the surface methodology. The broad adsorption spectrum of melanin could also allow removal of other micropollutants.

Heterologous expression of antigenic peptides in Bacillus subtilis biofilms

BACKGROUND

Numerous strategies have been developed for the display of heterologous proteins in the surface of live bacterial carriers, which can be used as vaccines, immune-modulators, cancer therapy or bioremediation. Bacterial biofilms have emerged as an interesting approach for the expression of proteins of interest. Bacillus subtilis is a well-described, endospore-forming organism that is able to form biofilms and also used as a probiotic, thus making it a suitable candidate for the display of heterologous proteins within the biofilm. Here, we describe the use of TasA, an important structural component of the biofilms formed by B. subtilis, as a genetic tool for the display of heterologous proteins.

RESULTS

We first engineered the fusion protein TasA-mCherry and showed that was widely deployed within the B. subtilis biofilms. A significant enhancement of the expression of TasA-mCherry within the biofilm was obtained when depleting both tasA and sinR genes. We subsequently engineered fusion proteins of TasA to antigenic peptides of the E. granulosus parasite, paramyosin and tropomyosin. Our results show that the antigens were well expressed within the biofilm as denoted by macrostructure complementation and by the detection of the fusion protein in both immunoblot and immunohistochemistry. In addition, we show that the recombinant endospores of B. subtilis preserve their biophysical and morphological properties.

CONCLUSIONS

In this work we provide strong evidence pointing that TasA is a suitable candidate for the display of heterologous peptides, such as antigens, cytokines, enzymes or antibodies, in the B. subtilis biofilms. Finally, our data portray that the recombinant endospores preserve their morphological and biophysical properties and could be an excellent tool to facilitate the transport and the administration.

Improved cell surface display of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis antigens in Escherichia coli

BACKGROUND

Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (SE) is one of the most potent pathogenic Salmonella serotypes causing food-borne diseases in humans. We have previously reported the use of the β-autotransporter AIDA-I to express the Salmonella flagellar protein H:gm and the SE serotype-specific fimbrial protein SefA at the surface of E. coli as live bacterial vaccine vehicles. While SefA was successfully displayed at the cell surface, virtually no full-length H:gm was exposed to the medium due to extensive proteolytic cleavage of the N-terminal region. In the present study, we addressed this issue by expressing a truncated H:gm variant (H:gmd) covering only the serotype-specific central region. This protein was also expressed in fusion to SefA (H:gmdSefA) to understand if the excellent translocation properties of SefA could be used to enhance the secretion and immunogenicity.

RESULTS

H:gmd and H:gmdSefA were both successfully translocated to the E. coli outer membrane as full-length proteins using the AIDA-I system. Whole-cell flow cytometric analysis confirmed that both antigens were displayed and accessible from the extracellular environment. In contrast to H:gm, the H:gmd protein was not only expressed as full-length protein, but it also seemed to promote the display of the protein fusion H:gmdSefA. Moreover, the epitopes appeared to be recognized by HT-29 intestinal cells, as measured by induction of the pro-inflammatory interleukin 8.

CONCLUSIONS

We believe this study to be an important step towards a live bacterial vaccine against Salmonella due to the central role of the flagellar antigen H:gm and SefA in Salmonella infections and the corresponding immune responses against Salmonella.