Metabolic engineering of Kluyveromyces lactis for L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) biosynthesis

A convenient broad-host counterselectable system endowing rapid genetic manipulations of Kluyveromyces lactis and other yeast species

Being generally regarded as safe, Kluyveromyces lactis has been widely taken for food, feed, and pharmaceutical applications, owing to its ability to achieve high levels of protein secretion and hence being suitable for industrial production of heterologous proteins. Production platform strains can be created through genetic engineering; while prototrophic cells without chromosomally accumulated antibiotics resistance genes have been generally preferred, arising the need for dominant counterselection. We report here the establishment of a convenient counterselection system based on a Frs2 variant, Frs2v, which is a mutant of the alpha-subunit of phenylalanyl-tRNA synthase capable of preferentially incorporating a toxic analog of phenylalanine, r-chloro-phenylalanine (4-CP), into proteins to bring about cell growth inhibition. We demonstrated that expression of Frs2v from an episomal plasmid in K. lactis could make the host cells sensitive to 2 mM 4-CP, and a Frs2v-expressing plasmid could be efficiently removed from the cells immediately after a single round of cell culturing in a 4-CP-contianing YPD medium. This Frs2v-based counterselection helped us attain scarless gene replacement in K. lactis without any prior engineering of the host cells. More importantly, counterselection with this system was proven to be functionally efficient also in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Komagataella phaffii, suggestive of a broader application scope of the system in various yeast hosts. Collectively, this work has developed a strategy to enable rapid, convenient, and high-efficiency construction of prototrophic strains of K. lactis and possibly many other yeast species, and provided an important reference for establishing similar methods in other industrially important eukaryotic microbes.

Advanced Fungal Biotechnologies in Accomplishing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): What Do We Know and What Comes Next?

The present era has witnessed an unprecedented scenario with extreme climate changes, depleting natural resources and rising global food demands and its widespread societal impact. From providing bio-based resources to fulfilling socio-economic necessities, tackling environmental challenges, and ecosystem restoration, microbes exist as integral members of the ecosystem and influence human lives. Microbes demonstrate remarkable potential to adapt and thrive in climatic variations and extreme niches and promote environmental sustainability. It is important to mention that advances in fungal biotechnologies have opened new avenues and significantly contributed to improving human lives through addressing socio-economic challenges. Microbe-based sustainable innovations would likely contribute to the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) by providing affordable energy (use of agro-industrial waste by microbial conversions), reducing economic burdens/affordable living conditions (new opportunities by the creation of bio-based industries for a sustainable living), tackling climatic changes (use of sustainable alternative fuels for reducing carbon footprints), conserving marine life (production of microbe-based bioplastics for safer marine life) and poverty reduction (microbial products), among other microbe-mediated approaches. The article highlights the emerging trends and future directions into how fungal biotechnologies can provide feasible and sustainable solutions to achieve SDGs and address global issues.

Folate-producing bifidobacteria: metabolism, genetics, and relevance

Folate (the general term for all bioactive forms of vitamin B9) plays a crucial role in the evolutionary highly conserved one-carbon (1C) metabolism, a network including central reactions such as DNA and protein synthesis and methylation of macromolecules. Folate delivers 1C units, such as methyl and formyl, between reactants. Plants, algae, fungi, and many bacteria can naturally produce folate, whereas animals, including humans, must obtain folate from external sources. For humans, folate deficiency is, however, a widespread problem. Bifidobacteria constitute an important component of human and many animal microbiomes, providing various health advantages to the host, such as producing folate. This review focuses on bifidobacteria and folate metabolism and the current knowledge of the distribution of genes needed for complete folate biosynthesis across different bifidobacterial species. Biotechnologies based on folate-trophic probiotics aim to create fermented products enriched with folate or design probiotic supplements that can synthesize folate in the colon, improving overall health. Therefore, bifidobacteria (alone or in association with other microorganisms) may, in the future, contribute to reducing widespread folate deficiencies prevalent among vulnerable human population groups, such as older people, women at child-birth age, and people in low-income countries.

Kluyveromyces as promising yeast cell factories for industrial bioproduction: From bio-functional design to applications

As the two most widely used Kluyveromyces yeast, Kluyveromyces marxianus and K. lactis have gained increasing attention as microbial chassis in biocatalysts, biomanufacturing and the utilization of low-cost raw materials owing to their high suitability to these applications. However, due to slow progress in the development of molecular genetic manipulation tools and synthetic biology strategies, Kluyveromyces yeast cell factories as biological manufacturing platforms have not been fully developed. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the attractive characteristics and applications of Kluyveromyces cell factories, with special emphasis on the development of molecular genetic manipulation tools and systems engineering strategies for synthetic biology. In addition, future avenues in the development of Kluyveromyces cell factories for the utilization of simple carbon compounds as substrates, the dynamic regulation of metabolic pathways, and for rapid directed evolution of robust strains are proposed. We expect that more synthetic systems, synthetic biology tools and metabolic engineering strategies will adapt to and optimize for Kluyveromyces cell factories to achieve green biofabrication of multiple products with higher efficiency.

Focus and Insights into the Synthetic Biology-Mediated Chassis of Economically Important Fungi for the Production of High-Value Metabolites

Substantial progress has been achieved and knowledge gaps addressed in synthetic biology-mediated engineering of biological organisms to produce high-value metabolites. Bio-based products from fungi are extensively explored in the present era, attributed to their emerging importance in the industrial sector, healthcare, and food applications. The edible group of fungi and multiple fungal strains defines attractive biological resources for high-value metabolites comprising food additives, pigments, dyes, industrial chemicals, and antibiotics, including other compounds. In this direction, synthetic biology-mediated genetic chassis of fungal strains to enhance/add value to novel chemical entities of biological origin is opening new avenues in fungal biotechnology. While substantial success has been achieved in the genetic manipulation of economically viable fungi (including Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in the production of metabolites of socio-economic relevance, knowledge gaps/obstacles in fungal biology and engineering need to be remedied for complete exploitation of valuable fungal strains. Herein, the thematic article discusses the novel attributes of bio-based products from fungi and the creation of high-value engineered fungal strains to promote yield, bio-functionality, and value-addition of the metabolites of socio-economic value. Efforts have been made to discuss the existing limitations in fungal chassis and how the advances in synthetic biology provide a plausible solution.

Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for direct production of vitamin C from D-glucose

BACKGROUND

Production of vitamin C has been traditionally based on the Reichstein process and the two-step process. However, the two processes share a common disadvantage: vitamin C cannot be directly synthesized from D-glucose. Therefore, significant effort has been made to develop a one-step vitamin C fermentation process. While, 2-KLG, not vitamin C, is synthesized from nearly all current one-step fermentation processes. Vitamin C is naturally synthesized from glucose in Arabidopsis thaliana via a ten-step reaction pathway that is encoded by ten genes. The main objective of this study was to directly produce vitamin C from D-glucose in Escherichia coli by expression of the genes from the A. thaliana vitamin C biosynthetic pathway.

RESULTS

Therefore, the ten genes of whole vitamin C synthesis pathway of A. thaliana were chemically synthesized, and an engineered strain harboring these genes was constructed in this study. The direct production of vitamin C from D-glucose based on one-step fermentation was achieved using this engineered strain and at least 1.53 mg/L vitamin C was produced in shaking flasks.

CONCLUSIONS

The study demonstrates the feasibility of one-step fermentation for the production of vitamin C from D-glucose. Importantly, the one-step process has significant advantages compared with the currently used fermentation process: it can save multiple physical and chemical steps needed to convert D-glucose to D-sorbitol; it also does not involve the associated down-streaming steps required to convert 2-KLG into vitamin C.

Strain Development, Substrate Utilization, and Downstream Purification of Vitamin C

Vitamin C, C6H8O6, is a water-soluble vitamin that is widespread in nature. It is an essential nutrient involved in many biological processes in the living organisms: it enhances collagen biosynthesis, ensures the optimal functioning of enzymes and the immune system, has a major role in lipid and iron metabolism, and it enhances the biosynthesis of l-carnitine. Due to its antioxidant activity, vitamin C can neutralize the tissue-damaging effects of free radicals. Vitamin C is being related to the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. This review includes current information on the biosynthesis of ascorbic acid, as new methods are now challenging the traditional Reichstein process for vitamin C’s industrial-scale production. Different strains were analyzed in correlation with their ability to synthesize ascorbic acid, and several separation techniques were investigated for a more effective production of vitamin C.

Synthetic biology: a new frontier in food production

Concerns regarding food security arise from population growth, global warming, and reduction in arable land. With advances in synthetic biology, food production by microbes is considered to be a promising alternative that would allow rapid food production in an environmentally friendly manner. Moreover, synthetic biology can be adopted to the production of healthier or specifically designed food ingredients (e.g., high-value proteins, lipids, and vitamins) and broaden the utilization of feedstocks (e.g., methanol and CO₂), thereby offering potential solutions to high-quality food and the greenhouse effect. We first present how synthetic biology can facilitate the microbial production of various food components, and then discuss feedstock availability enabled by synthetic biology. Finally, we illustrate trends and key challenges in synthetic biology-driven food production.

Customized yeast cell factories for biopharmaceuticals: from cell engineering to process scale up

The manufacture of recombinant therapeutics is a fastest-developing section of therapeutic pharmaceuticals and presently plays a significant role in disease management. Yeasts are established eukaryotic host for heterologous protein production and offer distinctive benefits in synthesising pharmaceutical recombinants. Yeasts are proficient of vigorous growth on inexpensive media, easy for gene manipulations, and are capable of adding post translational changes of eukaryotes. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is model yeast that has been applied as a main host for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and is the major tool box for genetic studies; nevertheless, numerous other yeasts comprising Pichia pastoris, Kluyveromyces lactis, Hansenula polymorpha, and Yarrowia lipolytica have attained huge attention as non-conventional partners intended for the industrial manufacture of heterologous proteins. Here we review the advances in yeast gene manipulation tools and techniques for heterologous pharmaceutical protein synthesis. Application of secretory pathway engineering, glycosylation engineering strategies and fermentation scale-up strategies in customizing yeast cells for the synthesis of therapeutic proteins has been meticulously described.

One-Step Biosynthesis of Vitamin C in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Vitamin C (VC) is comprehensively applied in foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and especially clinical medicine. Nowadays, the industrial production of VC mainly relies on the classic two-step fermentation route, and researchers have explored the way for one-step fermentation of VC in recent years. In this study, a VC biosynthesis pathway that directly produced VC from glucose was reconstructed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the protein engineering and metabolic engineering strategies were adopted to improve it. First, five exogenous modules from Arabidopsis were introduced into the chassis cells by synthetic biology approaches to obtain the strain YLAA harboring VC biosynthesis. In addition, L-galactose dehydrogenase (L-GalDH) and L-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase (L-GLDH) were fused and expressed in S. cerevisiae cells for the first time, which increased the intracellular VC accumulation by 2.78-fold, reaching 9.97 ± 0.09 mg/L. Through copy number engineering, it was further confirmed that the last step catalyzed by L-GLDH is the rate-limiting step. GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase (GPP) encoded by vtc2 is another rate-limiting enzyme confirmed by GAL1p overexpression results. Finally, by balancing gene expression and cell growth, the highest production strain with overexpressing vtc2 by multicopy plasmids was constructed. The VC accumulation reached 24.94 ± 1.16 mg/L, which was currently the highest production from glucose in S. cerevisiae. The production of the recombinant strain reached nearly 44 mg/L with the exogenous addition of L-galactose or glutathione. The results further emphasized the importance of the step catalyzed by GPP. The investigation provided experience for the efficient biosynthesis of VC and the determination of rate-limiting steps.

Recent advances in systems and synthetic biology approaches for developing novel cell-factories in non-conventional yeasts

Microbial bioproduction of chemicals, proteins, and primary metabolites from cheap carbon sources is currently an advancing area in industrial research. The model yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a well-established biorefinery host that has been used extensively for commercial manufacturing of bioethanol from myriad carbon sources. However, its Crabtree-positive nature often limits the use of this organism for the biosynthesis of commercial molecules that do not belong in the fermentative pathway. To avoid extensive strain engineering of S. cerevisiae for the production of metabolites other than ethanol, non-conventional yeasts can be selected as hosts based on their natural capacity to produce desired commodity chemicals. Non-conventional yeasts like Kluyveromyces marxianus, K. lactis, Yarrowia lipolytica, Pichia pastoris, Scheffersomyces stipitis, Hansenula polymorpha, and Rhodotorula toruloides have been considered as potential industrial eukaryotic hosts owing to their desirable phenotypes such as thermotolerance, assimilation of a wide range of carbon sources, as well as ability to secrete high titers of protein and lipid. However, the advanced metabolic engineering efforts in these organisms are still lacking due to the limited availability of systems and synthetic biology methods like in silico models, well-characterised genetic parts, and optimized genome engineering tools. This review provides an insight into the recent advances and challenges of systems and synthetic biology as well as metabolic engineering endeavours towards the commercial usage of non-conventional yeasts. Particularly, the approaches in emerging non-conventional yeasts for the production of enzymes, therapeutic proteins, lipids, and metabolites for commercial applications are extensively discussed here. Various attempts to address current limitations in designing novel cell factories have been highlighted that include the advances in the fields of genome-scale metabolic model reconstruction, flux balance analysis, 'omics'-data integration into models, genome-editing toolkit development, and rewiring of cellular metabolisms for desired chemical production. Additionally, the understanding of metabolic networks using ¹³C-labelling experiments as well as the utilization of metabolomics in deciphering intracellular fluxes and reactions have also been discussed here. Application of cutting-edge nuclease-based genome editing platforms like CRISPR/Cas9, and its optimization towards efficient strain engineering in non-conventional yeasts have also been described. Additionally, the impact of the advances in promising non-conventional yeasts for efficient commercial molecule synthesis has been meticulously reviewed. In the future, a cohesive approach involving systems and synthetic biology will help in widening the horizon of the use of unexplored non-conventional yeast species towards industrial biotechnology.

Formation of folates by microorganisms: towards the biotechnological production of this vitamin

Folates (vitamin B₉) are essential micronutrients which function as cofactors in one-carbon transfer reactions involved in the synthesis of nucleotides and amino acids. Folate deficiency is associated with important diseases such as cancer, anemia, cardiovascular diseases, or neural tube defects. Epidemiological data show that folate deficiency is still highly prevalent in many populations. Hence, food fortification with synthetic folic acid (i.e., folic acid supplementation) has become mandatory in many developed countries. However, folate biofortification of staple crops and dairy products as well as folate bioproduction using metabolically engineered microorganisms are promising alternatives to folic acid supplementation. Here, we review the current strategies aimed at overproducing folates in microorganisms, in view to implement an economic feasible process for the biotechnological production of the vitamin.

Heterologous expression of an α-amylase inhibitor from common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in Kluyveromyces lactis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Background

Phaseolamin or α-amylase inhibitor 1 (αAI) is a glycoprotein from common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) that inhibits some insect and mammalian α-amylases. Several clinical studies support the beneficial use of bean αAI for control of diabetes and obesity. Commercial extracts of P. vulgaris are available but their efficacy is still under question, mainly because some of these extracts contain antinutritional impurities naturally present in bean seeds and also exhibit a lower specific activity αAI. The production of recombinant αAI allows to overcome these disadvantages and provides a platform for the large-scale production of pure and functional αAI protein for biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications.

Results

A synthetic gene encoding αAI from the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris cv. Pinto) was codon-optimised for expression in yeasts (αAI-OPT) and cloned into the protein expression vectors pKLAC2 and pYES2. The yeasts Kluyveromyces lactis GG799 (and protease deficient derivatives such as YCT390) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae YPH499 were transformed with the optimised genes and transformants were screened for expression by antibody dot blot. Recombinant colonies of K. lactis YCT390 that expressed and secreted functional αAI into the culture supernatants were selected for further analyses. Recombinant αAI from K. lactis YCT390 was purified using anion-exchange and affinity resins leading to the recovery of a functional inhibitor. The identity of the purified αAI was confirmed by mass spectrometry. Recombinant clones of S. cerevisiae YPH499 expressed functional αAI intracellularly, but did not secrete the protein.

Conclusions

This is the first report describing the heterologous expression of the α-amylase inhibitor 1 (αAI) from P. vulgaris in yeasts. We demonstrated that recombinant strains of K. lactis and S. cerevisiae expressed and processed the αAI precursor into mature and active protein and also showed that K. lactis secretes functional αAI.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12934-017-0719-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Metabolic engineering of the fungal D-galacturonate pathway for L-ascorbic acid production

Background

Synthetic L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is widely used as a preservative and nutrient in food and pharmaceutical industries. In the current production method, D-glucose is converted to L-ascorbic acid via several biochemical and chemical steps. The main source of L-ascorbic acid in human nutrition is plants. Several alternative metabolic pathways for L-ascorbic acid biosynthesis are known in plants. In one of them, D-galacturonic acid is the precursor. D-Galacturonic acid is also the main monomer in pectin, a plant cell wall polysaccharide. Pectin is abundant in biomass and is readily available from several waste streams from fruit and sugar processing industries.

Results

In the present work, we engineered the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger for the conversion of D-galacturonic acid to L-ascorbic acid. In the generated pathway, the native D-galacturonate reductase activity was utilized while the gene coding for the second enzyme in the fungal D-galacturonic acid pathway, an L-galactonate consuming dehydratase, was deleted. Two heterologous genes coding for enzymes from the plant L-ascorbic acid pathway – L-galactono-1,4-lactone lactonase from Euglena gracilis (EgALase) and L-galactono-1,4-lactone dehydrogenase from Malpighia glabra (MgGALDH) – were introduced into the A. niger strain. Alternatively, an unspecific L-gulono-1,4-lactone lactonase (smp30) from the animal L-ascorbic acid pathway was introduced in the fungal strain instead of the plant L-galactono-1,4-lactone lactonase. In addition, a strain with the production pathway inducible with D-galacturonic acid was generated by using a bidirectional and D-galacturonic acid inducible promoter from the fungus. Even though, the lactonase enzyme activity was not observed in the resulting strains, they were capable of producing L-ascorbic acid from pure D-galacturonic acid or pectin-rich biomass in a consolidated bioprocess. Product titers up to 170 mg/l were achieved.

Conclusions

In the current study, an L-ascorbic acid pathway using D-galacturonic acid as a precursor was introduced to a microorganism for the first time. This is also the first report on an engineered filamentous fungus for L-ascorbic acid production and a proof-of-concept of consolidated bioprocess for the production.

Improving industrial yeast strains: exploiting natural and artificial diversity

Yeasts have been used for thousands of years to make fermented foods and beverages, such as beer, wine, sake, and bread. However, the choice for a particular yeast strain or species for a specific industrial application is often based on historical, rather than scientific grounds. Moreover, new biotechnological yeast applications, such as the production of second-generation biofuels, confront yeast with environments and challenges that differ from those encountered in traditional food fermentations. Together, this implies that there are interesting opportunities to isolate or generate yeast variants that perform better than the currently used strains. Here, we discuss the different strategies of strain selection and improvement available for both conventional and nonconventional yeasts. Exploiting the existing natural diversity and using techniques such as mutagenesis, protoplast fusion, breeding, genome shuffling and directed evolution to generate artificial diversity, or the use of genetic modification strategies to alter traits in a more targeted way, have led to the selection of superior industrial yeasts. Furthermore, recent technological advances allowed the development of high-throughput techniques, such as 'global transcription machinery engineering' (gTME), to induce genetic variation, providing a new source of yeast genetic diversity.

Construction of recombinant Kluyveromyces marxianus UFV-3 to express dengue virus type 1 nonstructural protein 1 (NS1)

The yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus is a convenient host for industrial synthesis of biomolecules. However, despite its potential, there are few studies reporting the expression of heterologous proteins using this yeast. Here, we report expression of a dengue virus protein in K. marxianus for the first time. The dengue virus type 1 nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) was integrated into the K. marxianus UFV-3 genome at the LAC4 locus using an adapted integrative vector designed for high-level expression of recombinant protein in Kluyveromyces lactis. The NS1 gene sequence was codon-optimized to increase the level of protein expression in yeast. The synthetic gene was cloned in frame with K. lactis α-mating factor signal peptide, and the recombinant plasmid obtained was used to transform K. marxianus UFV-3 by electroporation. The transformed cells, selected in yeast extract peptone dextrose containing 200 μg mL(-1) Geneticin, were mitotically stable. Analysis of recombinant strains by RT-PCR and protein detection using blot analysis confirmed both transcription and expression of extracellular NS1 polypeptide. After induction with galactose, the NS1 protein was analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE and immunogenic detection. Protein production was investigated under two conditions: with galactose and biotin pulses at 24-h intervals during 96 h of induction and without galactose and biotin supplementation. Protease activity was not detected in post-growth medium. Our results indicate that recombinant K. marxianus is a good host for the production of dengue virus NS1 protein, which has potential for diagnostic applications.