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Synthetic microbial consortia for biosynthesis and biodegradation: promises and challenges. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 2019; 46:1343-1358. [PMID: 31278525 DOI: 10.1007/s10295-019-02211-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2019] [Accepted: 07/01/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Functional differentiation and metabolite exchange enable microbial consortia to perform complex metabolic tasks and efficiently cycle the nutrients. Inspired by the cooperative relationships in environmental microbial consortia, synthetic microbial consortia have great promise for studying the microbial interactions in nature and more importantly for various engineering applications. However, challenges coexist with promises, and the potential of consortium-based technologies is far from being fully harnessed. Thorough understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms of microbial interactions is greatly needed for the rational design and optimization of defined consortia. These knowledge gaps could be potentially filled with the assistance of the ongoing revolution in systems biology and synthetic biology tools. As current fundamental and technical obstacles down the road being removed, we would expect new avenues with synthetic microbial consortia playing important roles in biological and environmental engineering processes such as bioproduction of desired chemicals and fuels, as well as biodegradation of persistent contaminants.
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Jarboe LR. Improving the success and impact of the metabolic engineering design, build, test, learn cycle by addressing proteins of unknown function. Curr Opin Biotechnol 2018; 53:93-98. [PMID: 29306676 DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2017.12.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2017] [Revised: 12/12/2017] [Accepted: 12/17/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Rational, predictive metabolic engineering of organisms requires an ability to associate biological activity to the corresponding gene(s). Despite extensive advances in the 20 years since the Escherichia coli genome was published, there are still gaps in our knowledge of protein function. The substantial amount of data that has been published, such as: omics-level characterization in a myriad of conditions; genome-scale libraries; and evolution and genome sequencing, provide means of identifying and prioritizing proteins for characterization. This review describes the scale of this knowledge gap, demonstrates the benefit of addressing the knowledge gap, and demonstrates the availability of interesting candidates for characterization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura R Jarboe
- Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, United States; Interdepartmental Microbiology Graduate Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, United States.
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Zhou A, Hillesland KL, He Z, Schackwitz W, Tu Q, Zane GM, Ma Q, Qu Y, Stahl DA, Wall JD, Hazen TC, Fields MW, Arkin AP, Zhou J. Rapid selective sweep of pre-existing polymorphisms and slow fixation of new mutations in experimental evolution of Desulfovibrio vulgaris. ISME JOURNAL 2015; 9:2360-72. [PMID: 25848870 DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2015.45] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2014] [Revised: 02/07/2015] [Accepted: 02/26/2015] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
To investigate the genetic basis of microbial evolutionary adaptation to salt (NaCl) stress, populations of Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough (DvH), a sulfate-reducing bacterium important for the biogeochemical cycling of sulfur, carbon and nitrogen, and potentially the bioremediation of toxic heavy metals and radionuclides, were propagated under salt stress or non-stress conditions for 1200 generations. Whole-genome sequencing revealed 11 mutations in salt stress-evolved clone ES9-11 and 14 mutations in non-stress-evolved clone EC3-10. Whole-population sequencing data suggested the rapid selective sweep of the pre-existing polymorphisms under salt stress within the first 100 generations and the slow fixation of new mutations. Population genotyping data demonstrated that the rapid selective sweep of pre-existing polymorphisms was common in salt stress-evolved populations. In contrast, the selection of pre-existing polymorphisms was largely random in EC populations. Consistently, at 100 generations, stress-evolved population ES9 showed improved salt tolerance, namely increased growth rate (2.0-fold), higher biomass yield (1.8-fold) and shorter lag phase (0.7-fold) under higher salinity conditions. The beneficial nature of several mutations was confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis. All four tested mutations contributed to the shortened lag phases under higher salinity condition. In particular, compared with the salt tolerance improvement in ES9-11, a mutation in a histidine kinase protein gene lytS contributed 27% of the growth rate increase and 23% of the biomass yield increase while a mutation in hypothetical gene DVU2472 contributed 24% of the biomass yield increase. Our results suggested that a few beneficial mutations could lead to dramatic improvements in salt tolerance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aifen Zhou
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | | | - Zhili He
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Wendy Schackwitz
- Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA, USA
| | - Qichao Tu
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
| | - Grant M Zane
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA
| | - Qiao Ma
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.,Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (MOE), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - Yuanyuan Qu
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.,Key Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (MOE), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
| | - David A Stahl
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Judy D Wall
- Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, USA
| | - Terry C Hazen
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.,Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Matthew W Fields
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
| | - Adam P Arkin
- Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Jizhong Zhou
- Institute for Environmental Genomics, Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.,Earth Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.,State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
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Si T, Xiao H, Zhao H. Rapid prototyping of microbial cell factories via genome-scale engineering. Biotechnol Adv 2014; 33:1420-32. [PMID: 25450192 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2014.11.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2014] [Revised: 11/13/2014] [Accepted: 11/13/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Advances in reading, writing and editing genetic materials have greatly expanded our ability to reprogram biological systems at the resolution of a single nucleotide and on the scale of a whole genome. Such capacity has greatly accelerated the cycles of design, build and test to engineer microbes for efficient synthesis of fuels, chemicals and drugs. In this review, we summarize the emerging technologies that have been applied, or are potentially useful for genome-scale engineering in microbial systems. We will focus on the development of high-throughput methodologies, which may accelerate the prototyping of microbial cell factories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tong Si
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States; Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States
| | - Han Xiao
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States
| | - Huimin Zhao
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States; Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States; Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States; Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States; Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, United States.
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