Study on roles of anaplerotic pathways in glutamate overproduction of Corynebacterium glutamicum by metabolic flux analysis

Bacterial protein acetylation: mechanisms, functions, and methods for study

Lysine acetylation is an evolutionarily conserved protein modification that changes protein functions and plays an essential role in many cellular processes, such as central metabolism, transcriptional regulation, chemotaxis, and pathogen virulence. It can alter DNA binding, enzymatic activity, protein-protein interactions, protein stability, or protein localization. In prokaryotes, lysine acetylation occurs non-enzymatically and by the action of lysine acetyltransferases (KAT). In enzymatic acetylation, KAT transfers the acetyl group from acetyl-CoA (AcCoA) to the lysine side chain. In contrast, acetyl phosphate (AcP) is the acetyl donor of chemical acetylation. Regardless of the acetylation type, the removal of acetyl groups from acetyl lysines occurs only enzymatically by lysine deacetylases (KDAC). KATs are grouped into three main superfamilies based on their catalytic domain sequences and biochemical characteristics of catalysis. Specifically, members of the GNAT are found in eukaryotes and prokaryotes and have a core structural domain architecture. These enzymes can acetylate small molecules, metabolites, peptides, and proteins. This review presents current knowledge of acetylation mechanisms and functional implications in bacterial metabolism, pathogenicity, stress response, translation, and the emerging topic of protein acetylation in the gut microbiome. Additionally, the methods used to elucidate the biological significance of acetylation in bacteria, such as relative quantification and stoichiometry quantification, and the genetic code expansion tool (CGE), are reviewed.

Contributions of the anaplerotic reaction enzymes pyruvate carboxylase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase to l-lysine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Anaplerotic reactions catalyzed by pyruvate carboxylase (PC) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) have important roles in the production of l-lysine to replenish oxaloacetic acid (OAA) in Corynebacterium glutamicum. However, the relative contributions of these enzymes to l-lysine production in C. glutamicum are not fully understood. In this study, using a parent strain (P) carrying a feedback inhibition-resistant aspartokinase with the T311I mutation, we constructed a PC gene-deleted mutant strain (PΔPC) and a PEPC gene-deleted mutant strain (PΔPEPC). Although the growth of both mutant strains was comparable to the growth of strain P, the maximum l-lysine production in strains PΔPC and PΔPEPC decreased by 14% and 49%, respectively, indicating that PEPC strongly contributed to OAA supply. l-Lysine production in strain PΔPC slightly decreased during the logarithmic phase, while production during the early stationary phase was comparable to production in strain P. By contrast, strain PΔPEPC produced l-lysine in an amount comparable to the production of strain P during the logarithmic phase; l-lysine production after the early stationary phase was completely stopped in strain PΔPEPC. These results indicate that OAA is supplied by both PC and PEPC during the logarithmic phase, while only PEPC can continuously supply OAA after the logarithmic phase.

Enhancing Phycocyanobilin Production Efficiency in Engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum: Strategies and Potential Application

Phycocyanobilin, an algae-originated light-harvesting pigment known for its antioxidant properties, has gained attention as it plays important roles in the food and medication industries and has surged in demand owing to its low-yield extraction from natural resources. In this study, engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum was developed to achieve high PCB production, and three strategies were proposed: reinforcement of the heme biosynthesis pathway with the introduction of two PCB-related enzymes, strengthening of the pentose phosphate pathway to generate an efficient cycle of NADPH, and fed-batch fermentation to maximize PCB production. Each approach increased PCB synthesis, and the final engineered strain successfully produced 78.19 mg/L in a flask and 259.63 mg/L in a 5 L bioreactor, representing the highest bacterial production of PCB reported to date, to our knowledge. The strategies applied in this study will be useful for the synthesis of PCB derivatives and can be applied in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Corynebacterium glutamicum as an Efficient Omnivorous Microbial Host for the Bioconversion of Lignocellulosic Biomass

Corynebacterium glutamicum has been successfully employed for the industrial production of amino acids and other bioproducts, partially due to its native ability to utilize a wide range of carbon substrates. We demonstrated C. glutamicum as an efficient microbial host for utilizing diverse carbon substrates present in biomass hydrolysates, such as glucose, arabinose, and xylose, in addition to its natural ability to assimilate lignin-derived aromatics. As a case study to demonstrate its bioproduction capabilities, L-lactate was chosen as the primary fermentation end product along with acetate and succinate. C. glutamicum was found to grow well in different aromatics (benzoic acid, cinnamic acid, vanillic acid, and p-coumaric acid) up to a concentration of 40 mM. Besides, ¹³C-fingerprinting confirmed that carbon from aromatics enter the primary metabolism via TCA cycle confirming the presence of β-ketoadipate pathway in C. glutamicum. ¹³C-fingerprinting in the presence of both glucose and aromatics also revealed coumarate to be the most preferred aromatic by C. glutamicum contributing 74 and 59% of its carbon for the synthesis of glutamate and aspartate respectively. ¹³C-fingerprinting also confirmed the activity of ortho-cleavage pathway, anaplerotic pathway, and cataplerotic pathways. Finally, the engineered C. glutamicum strain grew well in biomass hydrolysate containing pentose and hexose sugars and produced L-lactate at a concentration of 47.9 g/L and a yield of 0.639 g/g from sugars with simultaneous utilization of aromatics. Succinate and acetate co-products were produced at concentrations of 8.9 g/L and 3.2 g/L, respectively. Our findings open the door to valorize all the major carbon components of biomass hydrolysate by using C. glutamicum as a microbial host for biomanufacturing.

mfapy: An open-source Python package for 13C-based metabolic flux analysis

¹³C-based metabolic flux analysis (¹³C-MFA) is an essential tool for estimating intracellular metabolic flux levels in metabolic engineering and biology. In ¹³C-MFA, a metabolic flux distribution that explains the observed isotope labeling data was computationally estimated using a non-linear optimization method. Herein, we report the development of mfapy, an open-source Python package developed for more flexibility and extensibility for ¹³C-MFA. mfapy compels users to write a customized Python code by describing each step in the data analysis procedures of the isotope labeling experiments. The flexibility and extensibility provided by mfapy can support trial-and-error performance in the routine estimation of metabolic flux distributions, experimental design by computer simulations of ¹³C-MFA experiments, and development of new data analysis techniques for stable isotope labeling experiments. mfapy is available to the public from the Github repository (https://github.com/fumiomatsuda/mfapy).

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An open-source Python package, mfapy, is developed for ¹³C-MFA.

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mfapy enables users to write Python codes for data analysis procedures of ¹³C-MFA.

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mfapy has a flexibility and extensibility to support various data analysis procedures.

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Computer simulations of ¹³C-MFA experiments is supported for experimental design.

Characterization of lysine acetylation in the peripheral subunit-binding domain of the E2 subunit of the pyruvate dehydrogenase-2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase hybrid complex from Corynebacterium glutamicum

In Corynebacterium glutamicum, pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) and 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (ODH) form a unique hybrid complex in which CgE1p and CgE1o are associated with the CgE2-CgE3 subcomplex. We analyzed the role of a lysine acetylation site in the peripheral subunit-binding domain of CgE2 in PDH and ODH functions. Acetylation-mimic substitution at Lys391 of CgE2 severely reduced the interaction of CgE2 with CgE1p and CgE3, but not with CgE1o, indicating the critical role of this residue in the assembly of CgE1p and CgE3 into the complex. It also suggested that Lys391 acetylation inhibited the binding of CgE1p and CgE3 to CgE2, thereby affecting PDH and ODH activities. Interestingly, the CgE2-K391R variant strain showed increased l-glutamate production and reduced pyruvate accumulation. Kinetic analysis suggested that the increased affinity of the K391R variant toward pyruvate might be advantageous for l-glutamate production.

Diamine Biosynthesis: Research Progress and Application Prospects

Diamines are important monomers for polyamide plastics; they include 1,3-diaminopropane, 1,4-diaminobutane, 1,5-diaminopentane, and 1,6-diaminohexane, among others. With increasing attention on environmental problems and green sustainable development, utilizing renewable raw materials for the synthesis of diamines is crucial for the establishment of a sustainable plastics industry. Recently, high-performance microbial factories, such as Escherichia coli and Corynebacterium glutamicum, have been widely used in the production of diamines. In particular, several synthetic pathways of 1,6-diaminohexane have been proposed based on glutamate or adipic acid. Here, we reviewed approaches for the biosynthesis of diamines, including metabolic engineering and biocatalysis, and the application of bio-based diamines in nylon materials. The related challenges and opportunities in the development of renewable bio-based diamines and nylon materials are also discussed.

Metabolic evolution and a comparative omics analysis of Corynebacterium glutamicum for putrescine production

Putrescine is widely used in the industrial production of bioplastics, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and surfactants. Because the highest titer of putrescine is much lower than that of its precursor L-ornithine reported in microorganisms to date, further work is needed to increase putrescine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum. We first compared 7 ornithine decarboxylase genes and found that the Enterobacter cloacae ornithine decarboxylase gene speC1 was most suitable for putrescine production in C. glutamicum. Increasing NADPH availability and blocking putrescine oxidation and acetylation were chosen as targets for metabolic engineering. The putrescine producer C. glutamicum PUT4 was first constructed by deleting puo, butA and snaA genes, and replacing the fabG gene with E. cloacae speC1. After adaptive evolution with C. glutamicum PUT4, the evolved strain C. glutamicum PUT-ALE, which produced an 96% higher amount of putrescine compared to the parent strain, was obtained. The whole genome resequencing indicates that the SNPs located in the odhA coding region may be associated with putrescine production. The comparative proteomic analysis reveals that the pentose phosphate and anaplerotic pathway, the glyoxylate cycle, and the ornithine biosynthetic pathway were upregulated in the evolved strain C. glutamicum PUT-ALE. The aspartate family, aromatic, and branched chain amino acid and fatty acid biosynthetic pathways were also observed to be downregulated in C. glutamicum PUT-ALE. Reducing OdhA activity by replacing the odhA native start codon GTG with TTG and overexpression of cgmA or pyc458 further improved putrescine production. Repressing the carB, ilvH, ilvB and aroE expression via CRISPRi also increased putrescine production by 5, 9, 16 and 19%, respectively.

Central carbon metabolism influences cellulase production in Bacillus licheniformis

Bacillus licheniformis that can produce cellulase including endo glucanase and glucosidase is an important industrial microbe for cellulose degradation. The purpose of this research was to assess the effect of endo glucanase gene bglC and glucosidase gene bglH on the central metabolic flux in B. licheniformis. bglC and bglH were knocked out using homologous recombination method, respectively, and the corresponding knockout strains were obtained for ¹³ C metabolic flux analysis. A significant change was observed in metabolic fluxes after ¹³ C metabolic flux ratio analysis. In both of the knockout strains, the increased fluxes of the pentose phosphate pathway and malic enzyme reaction enabled an elevated supply of NADPH which provided enough reducing power for the in vivo synthesis reactions. The fluxes through tricarboxylic acid cycle and anaplerotic reactions increased fast in the two knockout strains, which meant more energy generated. The changed fluxes in central carbon metabolism provided a holistic view of the physiological status in B. licheniformis and possible targets for further strain engineering.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

Cellulase is very important in the field of agriculture and bioenergy because of its degrading effect on cellulosic biomass. This study presented the effect of central carbon metabolism on cellulase production in Bacillus licheniformis. The study also provided a holistic view of the physiological status in B. licheniformis. The shifted metabolism provided a quantitative evaluation of the biosynthesis of cellulase and a priority ranked target list for further strain engineering.

Efficient production and secretion of oxaloacetate from Halomonas sp. KM-1 under aerobic conditions

The alkaliphilic, halophilic bacterium Halomonas sp. KM-1 can utilize glucose for the intracellular storage of the bioplastic poly-(R)-3-hydroxybutyric acid (PHB) and extracellular secretion of pyruvate under aerobic conditions. In this study, we investigated the effects of sodium chloride concentration on PHB accumulation and pyruvate secretion in the KM-1 strain and, unexpectedly, observed that oxaloacetate, an important intermediate chemical in the TCA cycle, glycogenesis, and aspartic acid biosynthesis, was secreted. We then further analyzed oxaloacetate productivity after changing the sodium chloride additive concentration, additive time-shift, and culture temperature. In 42-h batch-cultivation experiments, we found that wild-type Halomonas sp. KM-1 secreted 39.0 g/L oxaloacetate at a rate of 0.93 g/(L h). The halophilic bacteria Halomonas has already gained attention for industrial chemical-production processes owing to its unique properties, such as contamination-free culture conditions and a tolerance for high substrate concentrations. Moreover, no commercial scale oxaloacetate production was previously reported to result from bacterial fermentation. Oxaloacetate is an important intermediate chemical in biosynthesis and is used as a health food based on its role in energy synthesis. Thus, these data provided important insights into the production of oxaloacetate and other derivative chemicals using this strain.

Transcriptomic Changes in Response to Putrescine Production in Metabolically Engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum

Putrescine is widely used in industrial production of bioplastics, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and surfactants. Although engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum has been successfully used to produce high levels of putrescine, the overall cellular physiological and metabolic changes caused by overproduction of putrescine remains unclear. To reveal the transcriptional changes that occur in response to putrescine production in an engineered C. glutamicum strain, a comparative transcriptomic analysis was carried out. Overproduction of putrescine resulted in transcriptional downregulation of genes involved in glycolysis; the TCA cycle, pyruvate degradation, biosynthesis of some amino acids, oxidative phosphorylation; vitamin biosynthesis (thiamine and vitamin 6), metabolism of purine, pyrimidine and sulfur, and ATP-, NAD-, and NADPH-consuming enzymes. The transcriptional levels of genes involved in ornithine biosynthesis and NADPH-forming related enzymes were significantly upregulated in the putrescine producing C. glutamicum strain PUT-ALE. Comparative transcriptomic analysis provided some genetic modification strategies to further improve putrescine production. Repressing ATP- and NADPH-consuming enzyme coding gene expression via CRISPRi enhanced putrescine production.

Systems metabolic engineering strategies for the production of amino acids

Systems metabolic engineering is a multidisciplinary area that integrates systems biology, synthetic biology and evolutionary engineering. It is an efficient approach for strain improvement and process optimization, and has been successfully applied in the microbial production of various chemicals including amino acids. In this review, systems metabolic engineering strategies including pathway-focused approaches, systems biology-based approaches, evolutionary approaches and their applications in two major amino acid producing microorganisms: Corynebacterium glutamicum and Escherichia coli, are summarized.

Characterization of lysine acetylation of a phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase involved in glutamate overproduction in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Protein Nε-acylation is emerging as a ubiquitous post-translational modification. In Corynebacterium glutamicum, which is utilized for industrial production of l-glutamate, the levels of protein acetylation and succinylation change drastically under the conditions that induce glutamate overproduction. Here, the acylation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), an anaplerotic enzyme that supplies oxaloacetate for glutamate overproduction was characterized. It was shown that acetylation of PEPC at lysine 653 decreased enzymatic activity, leading to reduced glutamate production. An acetylation-mimic (KQ) mutant of K653 showed severely reduced glutamate production, while the corresponding KR mutant showed normal production levels. Using an acetyllysine-incorporated PEPC protein, we verified that K653-acetylation negatively regulates PEPC activity. In addition, NCgl0616, a sirtuin-type deacetylase, deacetylated K653-acetylated PEPC in vitro. Interestingly, the specific activity of PEPC was increased during glutamate overproduction, which was blocked by the K653R mutation or deletion of sirtuin-type deacetylase homologues. These findings suggested that deacetylation of K653 by NCgl0616 likely plays a role in the activation of PEPC, which maintains carbon flux under glutamate-producing conditions. PEPC deletion increased protein acetylation levels in cells under glutamate-producing conditions, supporting the hypothesis that PEPC is responsible for a large carbon flux change under glutamate-producing conditions.

Investigation of useful carbon tracers for 13C-metabolic flux analysis of Escherichia coli by considering five experimentally determined flux distributions

The ¹³C-MFA experiments require an optimal design since the precision or confidence intervals of the estimated flux levels depends on factors such as the composition of ¹³C-labeled carbon sources, as well as the metabolic flux distribution of interest. In this study, useful compositions of ¹³C-labeled glucose for ¹³C-metabolic flux analysis (¹³C-MFA) of Escherichia coli are investigated using a computer simulation of the stable isotope labeling experiment. Following the generation of artificial mass spectra datasets of amino acid fragments using five literature-reported flux distributions of E. coli, the best fitted flux distribution and the 95% confidence interval were estimated by the ¹³C-MFA procedure. A comparison of the precision scores showed that [1, 2-¹³C]glucose and a mixture of [1-¹³C] and [U-¹³C]glucose at 8:2 are one of the best carbon sources for a precise estimation of flux levels of the pentose phosphate pathway, glycolysis and the TCA cycle. Although the precision scores of the anaplerotic and glyoxylate pathway reactions were affected by both the carbon source and flux distribution, it was also shown that the mixture of non-labeled, [1-¹³C], and [U-¹³C]glucose at 4:1:5 was specifically effective for the flux estimation of the glyoxylate pathway reaction. These findings were confirmed by wet ¹³C-MFA experiments.

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Useful compositions of ¹³C-labeled glucose are investigated for ¹³C-MFA of E. coli.

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Computer simulations revealed that [1,2-¹³C] was one of the best first choices.

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Mixture of non-labeled, [1-¹³C] and [U-¹³C] at 0:8:2 was also suitable for ¹³C-MFA.

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Mixture at 4:1:5 was specifically effective for estimation of glyoxylate pathway.

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The wet ¹³C-MFA experiments of E. coli confirmed the findings.

Recent advances in amino acid production by microbial cells

Amino acids have been utilized for the production of foods, animal feeds and pharmaceuticals. After the discovery of the glutamic acid-producing bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum by Japanese researchers, the production of amino acids, which are primary metabolites, has been achieved using various microbial cells as hosts. Recently, metabolic engineering studies on the rational design of amino acid-producing microbial cells have been successfully conducted. Moreover, the technology of systems biology has been applied to metabolic engineering for the creation of amino acid-producing microbial cells. Currently, new technologies including synthetic biology, single-cell analysis, and evolutionary engineering have been utilized to create amino acid-producing microbial cells. In addition, useful compounds from amino acids have been produced by microbial cells. Here, current researches into the metabolic engineering of microbial cells toward production of amino acids and amino acid-related compounds are reviewed.

Glutamate Fermentation-2: Mechanism of L-Glutamate Overproduction in Corynebacterium glutamicum

The nonpathogenic coryneform bacterium, Corynebacterium glutamicum, was isolated as an L-glutamate-overproducing microorganism by Japanese researchers and is currently utilized in various amino acid fermentation processes. L-Glutamate production by C. glutamicum is induced by limitation of biotin and addition of fatty acid ester surfactants and β-lactam antibiotics. These treatments affect the cell surface structures of C. glutamicum. After the discovery of C. glutamicum, many researchers have investigated the underlying mechanism of L-glutamate overproduction with respect to the cell surface structures of this organism. Furthermore, metabolic regulation during L-glutamate overproduction by C. glutamicum, particularly, the relationship between central carbon metabolism and L-glutamate biosynthesis, has been investigated. Recently, the role of a mechanosensitive channel protein in L-glutamate overproduction has been reported. In this chapter, mechanisms of L-glutamate overproduction by C. glutamicum have been reviewed.

Altered acetylation and succinylation profiles in Corynebacterium glutamicum in response to conditions inducing glutamate overproduction

The bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum is utilized during industrial fermentation to produce amino acids such as L-glutamate. During L-glutamate fermentation, C. glutamicum changes the flux of central carbon metabolism to favor L-glutamate production, but the molecular mechanisms that explain these flux changes remain largely unknown. Here, we found that the profiles of two major lysine acyl modifications were significantly altered upon glutamate overproduction in C. glutamicum; acetylation decreased, whereas succinylation increased. A label-free semi-quantitative proteomic analysis identified 604 acetylated proteins with 1328 unique acetylation sites and 288 succinylated proteins with 651 unique succinylation sites. Acetylation and succinylation targeted enzymes in central carbon metabolic pathways that are directly related to glutamate production, including the 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex (ODHC), a key enzyme regulating glutamate overproduction. Structural mapping revealed that several critical lysine residues in the ODHC components were susceptible to acetylation and succinylation. Furthermore, induction of glutamate production was associated with changes in the extent of acetylation and succinylation of lysine, suggesting that these modifications may affect the activity of enzymes involved in glutamate production. Deletion of phosphotransacetylase decreased the extent of protein acetylation in nonproducing condition, suggesting that acetyl phosphate-dependent acetylation is active in C. glutamicum. However, no effect was observed on the profiles of acetylation and succinylation in glutamate-producing condition upon disruption of acetyl phosphate metabolism or deacetylase homologs. It was considered likely that the reduced acetylation in glutamate-producing condition may reflect metabolic states where the flux through acid-producing pathways is very low, and substrates for acetylation do not accumulate in the cell. Succinylation would occur more easily than acetylation in such conditions where the substrates for both acetylation and succinylation are limited. This is the first study investigating the acetylome and succinylome of C. glutamicum, and it provides new insight into the roles of acyl modifications in C. glutamicum biology.

Control of carbon flux to glutamate excretion in Klebsiella pneumoniae: the role of the indigenous plasmid and its encoded isocitrate dehydrogenase

Klebsiella pneumoniae (NCTC, CL687/80) harbors a large indigenous plasmid (p(C3)), which in addition to encoding for citrate utilization, proline synthesis and glutamate excretion, it uniquely carries the structural gene (icd); encoding isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH). Flux analysis revealed that ICDH, despite its role in the generation of NADPH required for glutamate dehydrogenase, is not rate-limiting (controlling) in central metabolism as evidenced by a negative flux control coefficient and an adverse effect of overexpression (14-fold) on glutamate excretion. More significantly, however, this paper presents, for the first time, clear evidence that the accumulation of glutamate and its subsequent excretion is associated with the C3 plasmid-encoded regulatory elements, which trigger a shift-down in the activity of α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, both in the K. pneumoniae parental strain as well as in the E. coli exconjugants strains. This finding opens the door for the exploitation of regulatory elements as a tool for manipulating flux in microbial cell factories.

Reconstruction and analysis of a genome-scale metabolic network of Corynebacterium glutamicum S9114

Corynebacterium glutamicum S9114 is commonly used for industrial glutamate production. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the physiological and metabolic characteristics of C. glutamicum is important for developing its potential for industrial production. A genome-scale metabolic model, iJM658, was reconstructed based on genome annotation and literature mining. The model consists of 658 genes, 984 metabolites and 1065 reactions. The model quantitatively predicted C. glutamicum growth on different carbon and nitrogen sources and determined 129 genes to be essential for cell growth. The iJM658 model predicted that C. glutamicum had two glutamate biosynthesis pathways and lacked eight key genes in biotin synthesis. Robustness analysis indicated a relative low oxygen level (1.21mmol/gDW/h) would improve glutamate production rate. Potential metabolic engineering targets for improving γ-aminobutyrate and isoleucine production rate were predicted by in silico deletion or overexpression of some genes. The iJM658 model is a useful tool for understanding and optimizing the metabolism of C. glutamicum and a valuable resource for future metabolic and physiological research.

Effects of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase desensitization on glutamic acid production in Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) in Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC13032, a glutamic-acid producing actinobacterium, is subject to feedback inhibition by metabolic intermediates such as aspartic acid and 2-oxoglutaric acid, which implies the importance of PEPC in replenishing oxaloacetic acid into the TCA cycle. Here, we investigated the effects of feedback-insensitive PEPC on glutamic acid production. A single amino-acid substitution in PEPC, D299N, was found to relieve the feedback control by aspartic acid, but not by 2-oxoglutaric acid. A simple mutant, strain R1, having the D299N substitution in PEPC was constructed from ATCC 13032 using the double-crossover chromosome replacement technique. Strain R1 produced glutamic acid at a concentration of 31.0 g/L from 100 g/L glucose in a jar fermentor culture under biotin-limited conditions, which was significantly higher than that of the parent, 26.0 g/L (1.19-fold), indicative of the positive effect of desensitized PEPC on glutamic acid production. Another mutant, strain DR1, having both desensitized PEPC and PYK-gene deleted mutations, was constructed in a similar manner using strain D1 with a PYK-gene deleted mutation as the parent. This mutation had been shown to enhance glutamic acid production in our previous study. Although marginal, strain D1 produced higher glutamic acid, 28.8 g/L, than ATCC13032 (1.11-fold). In contrast, glutamic acid production by strain DR-1 was elevated up to 36.9 g/L, which was 1.42-fold higher than ATCC13032 and significantly higher than the other three strains. The results showed a synergistic effect of these two mutations on glutamic acid production in C. glutamicum.

Fermentative production of the diamine putrescine: system metabolic engineering of corynebacterium glutamicum

Corynebacterium glutamicum shows great potential for the production of the glutamate-derived diamine putrescine, a monomeric compound of polyamides. A genome-scale stoichiometric model of a C. glutamicum strain with reduced ornithine transcarbamoylase activity, derepressed arginine biosynthesis, and an anabolic plasmid-addiction system for heterologous expression of E. coli ornithine decarboxylase gene speC was investigated by flux balance analysis with respect to its putrescine production potential. Based on these simulations, enhancing glycolysis and anaplerosis by plasmid-borne overexpression of the genes for glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase and pyruvate carboxylase as well as reducing 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase activity were chosen as targets for metabolic engineering. Changing the translational start codon of the chromosomal gene for 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase subunit E1o to the less preferred TTG and changing threonine 15 of OdhI to alanine reduced 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase activity about five fold and improved putrescine titers by 28%. Additional engineering steps improved further putrescine production with the largest contributions from preventing the formation of the by-product N-acetylputrescine by deletion of spermi(di)ne N-acetyltransferase gene snaA and from overexpression of the gene for a feedback-resistant N-acetylglutamate kinase variant. The resulting C. glutamicum strain NA6 obtained by systems metabolic engineering accumulated two fold more putrescine than the base strain, i.e., 58.1 ± 0.2 mM, and showed a specific productivity of 0.045 g·g-1·h-1 and a yield on glucose of 0.26 g·g-1.

Deletion of odhA or pyc improves production of γ-aminobutyric acid and its precursor L-glutamate in recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum

OBJECTIVES

To enhance γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) production in recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum, metabolic engineering strategies were used to improve the supply of the GABA precursor, L-glutamate.

RESULTS

C. glutamicum ATCC13032 co-expressing two glutamate decarboxylase genes (gadB1 and gadB2) was constructed in a previous study Shi et al. (J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 40:1285-1296, 2013) to synthesize GABA from endogenous L-glutamate. To improve its L-glutamate supply, new strains were constructed here. First, the odhA and pyc genes were deleted separately. Then, a gadB1-gadB2 co-expression plasmid was transferred into ΔodhA, Δpyc, and ATCC13032, resulting in recombinant strains SNW201, SNW202, and SNW200, respectively. After fermenting for 72 h, GABA production increased to 29.5 ± 1.1 and 24.9 ± 0.7 g/l in SNW201 and SNW202, respectively, which was significantly higher than that in SNW200 (19.4 ± 2.6 g/l). The GABA conversion ratios of SNW201 and SNW202 reached 0.98 and 0.96 mol/mol, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The recombinant strains SNW201 and SNW202 can be used as candidates for GABA production.

Enhanced production of gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA) in recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum by expressing glutamate decarboxylase active in expanded pH range

BACKGROUND

Gamma-aminobutylate (GABA) is an important chemical in pharmacetucal field and chemical industry. GABA has mostly been produced in lactic acid bacteria by adding L-glutamate to the culture medium since L-glutamate can be converted into GABA by inherent L-glutamate decarboxylase. Recently, GABA has gained much attention for the application as a major building block for the synthesis of 2-pyrrolidone and biodegradable polyamide nylon 4, which opens its application area in the industrial biotechnology. Therefore, Corynebacterium glutamicum, the major L-glutamate producing microorganism, has been engineered to achieve direct fermentative production of GABA from glucose, but their productivity was rather low.

RESULTS

Recombinant C. glutamicum strains were developed for enhanced production of GABA from glucose by expressing Escherichia coli glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) mutant, which is active in expanded pH range. Synthetic PH36, PI16, and PL26 promoters, which have different promoter strengths in C. glutamicum, were examined for the expression of E. coli GAD mutant. C. glutamicum expressing E. coli GAD mutant under the strong PH36 promoter could produce GABA to the concentration of 5.89±0.35 g/L in GP1 medium at pH 7.0, which is 17-fold higher than that obtained by C. glutamicum expressing wild-type E. coli GAD in the same condition (0.34±0.26 g/L). Fed-bath culture of C. glutamicum expressing E. coli GAD mutant in GP1 medium containing 50 μg/L of biotin at pH 6, culture condition of which was optimized in flask cultures, resulted in the highest GABA concentration of 38.6±0.85 g/L with the productivity of 0.536 g/L/h.

CONCLUSION

Recombinant C. glutamicum strains developed in this study should be useful for the direct fermentative production of GABA from glucose, which allows us to achieve enhanced production of GABA suitable for its application area in the industrial biotechnology.

Oligonucleotide recombination in corynebacteria without the expression of exogenous recombinases

Brevibacterium lactofermentum and Corynebacterium glutamicum are important biotechnology species of the genus Corynebacterium. The single-strand DNA annealing protein (SSAP)-independent oligonucleotide-mediated recombination procedure was successfully applied to the commonly used wild-type strains B. lactofermentum AJ1511 and C. glutamicum ATCC13032. When the rpsL gene was used as a target, the optimized protocol yielded up to (1.4±0.3)×10(3) and (6.7±1.3)×10(3) streptomycin-resistant colonies per 10(8) viable cells for the corresponding strains. We tested the influence of several parameters that are known to enhance the efficiency of oligonucleotide-mediated recombination in other bacterial species. Among them, increasing the concentration of oligonucleotides and targeting the lagging strand of the chromosome have proven to have positive effects on both of the tested species. No difference in the efficiency of recombination was observed between the oligonucleotides phosphorothiorated at the 5' ends and the unmodified oligonucleotides or between the oligonucleotides with four mutated nucleotides and those with one mutated nucleotide. The described approach demonstrates that during the adaptation of the recombineering technique, testing SSAP-independent oligonucleotide-mediated recombination could be a good starting point. Such testing could decrease the probability of an incorrect interpretation of the effect of exogenous protein factors (such as SSAP and/or corresponding exonucleases) due to non-optimal experimental conditions. In addition, SSAP-independent recombination itself could be useful in combination with suitable selection/enrichment methods.

Hierarchical management of carbon sources is regulated similarly by the CbrA/B systems in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas putida

The CbrA/B system in pseudomonads is involved in the utilization of carbon sources and carbon catabolite repression (CCR) through the activation of the small RNAs crcZ in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and crcZ and crcY in Pseudomonas putida. Interestingly, previous works reported that the CbrA/B system activity in P. aeruginosa PAO1 and P. putida KT2442 responded differently to the presence of different carbon sources, thus raising the question of the exact nature of the signal(s) detected by CbrA. Here, we demonstrated that the CbrA/B/CrcZ(Y) signal transduction pathway is similarly activated in the two Pseudomonas species. We show that the CbrA sensor kinase is fully interchangeable between the two species and, moreover, responds similarly to the presence of different carbon sources. In addition, a metabolomics analysis supported the hypothesis that CCR responds to the internal energy status of the cell, as the internal carbon/nitrogen ratio seems to determine CCR and non-CCR conditions. The strong difference found in the 2-oxoglutarate/glutamine ratio between CCR and non-CCR conditions points to the close relationship between carbon and nitrogen availability, or the relationship between the CbrA/B and NtrB/C systems, suggesting that both regulatory systems sense the same sort or interrelated signal.

OpenMebius: an open source software for isotopically nonstationary 13C-based metabolic flux analysis

The in vivo measurement of metabolic flux by ¹³C-based metabolic flux analysis (¹³C-MFA) provides valuable information regarding cell physiology. Bioinformatics tools have been developed to estimate metabolic flux distributions from the results of tracer isotopic labeling experiments using a ¹³C-labeled carbon source. Metabolic flux is determined by nonlinear fitting of a metabolic model to the isotopic labeling enrichment of intracellular metabolites measured by mass spectrometry. Whereas ¹³C-MFA is conventionally performed under isotopically constant conditions, isotopically nonstationary ¹³C metabolic flux analysis (INST-¹³C-MFA) has recently been developed for flux analysis of cells with photosynthetic activity and cells at a quasi-steady metabolic state (e.g., primary cells or microorganisms under stationary phase). Here, the development of a novel open source software for INST-¹³C-MFA on the Windows platform is reported. OpenMebius (Open source software for Metabolic flux analysis) provides the function of autogenerating metabolic models for simulating isotopic labeling enrichment from a user-defined configuration worksheet. Analysis using simulated data demonstrated the applicability of OpenMebius for INST-¹³C-MFA. Confidence intervals determined by INST-¹³C-MFA were less than those determined by conventional methods, indicating the potential of INST-¹³C-MFA for precise metabolic flux analysis. OpenMebius is the open source software for the general application of INST-¹³C-MFA.

Reliable Metabolic Flux Estimation in Escherichia coli Central Carbon Metabolism Using Intracellular Free Amino Acids

¹³C metabolic flux analysis (MFA) is a tool of metabolic engineering for investigation of in vivo flux distribution. A direct ¹³C enrichment analysis of intracellular free amino acids (FAAs) is expected to reduce time for labeling experiments of the MFA. Measurable FAAs should, however, vary among the MFA experiments since the pool sizes of intracellular free metabolites depend on cellular metabolic conditions. In this study, minimal ¹³C enrichment data of FAAs was investigated to perform the FAAs-based MFA. An examination of a continuous culture of Escherichia coli using ¹³C-labeled glucose showed that the time required to reach an isotopically steady state for FAAs is rather faster than that for conventional method using proteinogenic amino acids (PAAs). Considering 95% confidence intervals, it was found that the metabolic flux distribution estimated using FAAs has a similar reliability to that of the PAAs-based method. The comparative analysis identified glutamate, aspartate, alanine and phenylalanine as the common amino acids observed in E. coli under different culture conditions. The results of MFA also demonstrated that the ¹³C enrichment data of the four amino acids is required for a reliable analysis of the flux distribution.

The 2-oxoglutarate supply exerts significant control on the lysine synthesis flux in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

To determine the extent to which the supply of the precursor 2-oxoglutarate (2-OG) controls the synthesis of lysine in Saccharomyces cerevisiae growing exponentially in high glucose, top-down elasticity analysis was used. Three groups of reactions linked by 2-OG were defined. The 2-OG supply group comprised all metabolic steps leading to its formation, and the two 2-OG consumer groups comprised the enzymes and transporters involved in 2-OG transformation into lysine and glutamate and their further utilization for protein synthesis and storage. Various 2-OG steady-state concentrations that produced different fluxes to lysine and glutamate were attained using yeast mutants with increasing activities of Krebs cycle enzymes and decreased activities of Lys synthesis enzymes. The elasticity coefficients of the three enzyme groups were determined from the dependence of the amino acid fluxes on the 2-OG concentration. The respective degrees of control on the flux towards lysine (flux control coefficients) were determined from their elasticities, and were 1.1, 0.41 and -0.52 for the 2-OG producer group and the Lys and Glu branches, respectively. Thus, the predominant control exerted by the 2-OG supply on the rate of lysine synthesis suggests that over-expression of 2-OG producer enzymes may be a highly effective strategy to enhance Lys production.

Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for increasing the production of L-ornithine by increasing NADPH availability

The experiments presented here were based on the conclusions of our previous proteomic analysis. Increasing the availability of glutamate by overexpression of the genes encoding enzymes in the L-ornithine biosynthesis pathway upstream of glutamate and disruption of speE, which encodes spermidine synthase, improved L-ornithine production by Corynebacterium glutamicum. Production of L-ornithine requires 2 moles of NADPH per mole of L-ornithine. Thus, the effect of NADPH availability on L-ornithine production was also investigated. Expression of Clostridium acetobutylicum gapC, which encodes NADP-dependent glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and Bacillus subtilis rocG, which encodes NAD-dependent glutamate dehydrogenase, led to an increase of L-ornithine concentration caused by greater availability of NADPH. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis demonstrates that the increased levels of NADPH resulted from the expression of the gapC or rocG gene rather than that of genes (gnd, icd, and ppnK) involved in NADPH biosynthesis. The resulting strain, C. glutamicum ΔAPRE::rocG, produced 14.84 g l⁻¹ of L-ornithine. This strategy of overexpression of gapC and rocG will be useful for improving production of target compounds using NADPH as reducing equivalent within their synthetic pathways.

Metabolic evolution of Corynebacterium glutamicum for increased production of L-ornithine

Background

L-ornithine is effective in the treatment of liver diseases and helps strengthen the heart. The commercial applications mean that efficient biotechnological production of L-ornithine has become increasingly necessary. Adaptive evolution strategies have been proven a feasible and efficient technique to achieve improved cellular properties without requiring metabolic or regulatory details of the strain. The evolved strains can be further optimised by metabolic engineering. Thus, metabolic evolution strategy was used for engineering Corynebacterium glutamicum to enhance L-ornithine production.

Results

A C. glutamicum strain was engineered by using a combination of gene deletions and adaptive evolution with 70 passages of growth-based selection. The metabolically evolved C. glutamicum strain, named ΔAPE6937R42, produced 24.1 g/L of L-ornithine in a 5-L bioreactor. The mechanism used by C. glutamicum ΔAPE6937R42 to produce L-ornithine was investigated by analysing transcriptional levels of select genes and NADPH contents. The upregulation of the transcription levels of genes involved in the upstream pathway of glutamate biosynthesis and the elevated NADPH concentration caused by the upregulation of the transcriptional level of the ppnK gene promoted L-ornithine production in C. glutamicum ΔAPE6937R42.

Conclusions

The availability of NADPH plays an important role in L-ornithine production in C. glutamicum. Our results demonstrated that the combination of growth-coupled evolution with analysis of transcript abundances provides a strategy to engineer microbial strains for improving production of target compounds.

Enhancing the supply of oxaloacetate for L-glutamate production by pyc overexpression in different Corynebacterium glutamicum

During L-glutamate production, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and pyruvate carboxylase (PCx) play important roles in supplying oxaloacetate to the tricarboxylic acid cycle. To explore the significance of PCx for L-glutamate overproduction, the pyc gene encoding PCx was amplified in Corynebacterium glutamicum GDK-9 triggered by biotin limitation and CN1021 triggered by a temperature shock, respectively. In the fed-batch cultures, GDK-9pXMJ19pyc exhibited 7.4 % lower L-alanine excretion and no improved L-glutamate production. In contrast, CN1021pXMJ19pyc finally exhibited 13 % lower L-alanine excretion and identical L-glutamate production, however, 8.5 % higher L-glutamate production was detected during a short period of the fermentation. It was indicated that pyc overexpression in L-glutamate producer strains, especially CN1021, increased the supply of oxaloacetate for L-glutamate synthesis and decreased byproduct excretion at the pyruvate node.

Flux analysis and metabolomics for systematic metabolic engineering of microorganisms

Rational engineering of metabolism is important for bio-production using microorganisms. Metabolic design based on in silico simulations and experimental validation of the metabolic state in the engineered strain helps in accomplishing systematic metabolic engineering. Flux balance analysis (FBA) is a method for the prediction of metabolic phenotype, and many applications have been developed using FBA to design metabolic networks. Elementary mode analysis (EMA) and ensemble modeling techniques are also useful tools for in silico strain design. The metabolome and flux distribution of the metabolic pathways enable us to evaluate the metabolic state and provide useful clues to improve target productivity. Here, we reviewed several computational applications for metabolic engineering by using genome-scale metabolic models of microorganisms. We also discussed the recent progress made in the field of metabolomics and (13)C-metabolic flux analysis techniques, and reviewed these applications pertaining to bio-production development. Because these in silico or experimental approaches have their respective advantages and disadvantages, the combined usage of these methods is complementary and effective for metabolic engineering.

Improving protein secretion of a transglutaminase-secreting Corynebacterium glutamicum recombinant strain on the basis of 13C metabolic flux analysis

Corynebacterium glutamicum is known as a host species for amino acid production. This microorganism was recently noticed as a host that produces secreted proteins. In this study, we performed (13)C metabolic flux analysis ((13)C-MFA) on a recombinant C. glutamicum strain that secretes a heterologous transglutaminase (TGase) to improve TGase secretion. For the (13)C-MFA of a TGase-secreting C. glutamicum strain in batch cultivation, a (13)C-labeling experiment and measurement of mass isotopomer distributions of proteinogenic amino acids were performed, and metabolic fluxes were determined considering the changes in fractional (13)C-labeling of proteinogenic amino acids with respect to culture time. The TGase yield increased at the stationary phase but decreased toward its end. The results of (13)C-MFA revealed that the flux from glycolysis to the TCA cycle gradually increased during TGase secretion. We speculate that the NADH/NAD(+) ratio in the cells increases and that as a result, the specific glucose uptake rate decreases in the stationary phase because of the increased flux of the TCA cycle. Since it is expected that a decrease in the NADH/NAD(+) ratio would improve the TGase yield, we tried to enhance lactate production in a TGase-secreting C. glutamicum strain to decrease cellular NADH levels by increasing the pH level in the culture. The TGase yield increased in 1.4-fold by increasing the pH from 6.7 to 7.2, indicating that the TGase yield was successfully improved on the basis of the (13)C-MFA.

Bridging the gap between fluxomics and industrial biotechnology

Metabolic flux analysis is a vital tool used to determine the ultimate output of cellular metabolism and thus detect biotechnologically relevant bottlenecks in productivity. ¹³C-based metabolic flux analysis (¹³C-MFA) and flux balance analysis (FBA) have many potential applications in biotechnology. However, noteworthy hurdles in fluxomics study are still present. First, several technical difficulties in both ¹³C-MFA and FBA severely limit the scope of fluxomics findings and the applicability of obtained metabolic information. Second, the complexity of metabolic regulation poses a great challenge for precise prediction and analysis of metabolic networks, as there are gaps between fluxomics results and other omics studies. Third, despite identified metabolic bottlenecks or sources of host stress from product synthesis, it remains difficult to overcome inherent metabolic robustness or to efficiently import and express nonnative pathways. Fourth, product yields often decrease as the number of enzymatic steps increases. Such decrease in yield may not be caused by rate-limiting enzymes, but rather is accumulated through each enzymatic reaction. Fifth, a high-throughput fluxomics tool hasnot been developed for characterizing nonmodel microorganisms and maximizing their application in industrial biotechnology. Refining fluxomics tools and understanding these obstacles will improve our ability to engineer highlyefficient metabolic pathways in microbial hosts.

Metabolic fluxes and beyond-systems biology understanding and engineering of microbial metabolism

The recent years have seen tremendous progress towards the understanding of microbial metabolism on a higher level of the entire functional system. Hereby, huge achievements including the sequencing of complete genomes and efficient post-genomic approaches provide the basis for a new, fascinating era of research-analysis of metabolic and regulatory properties on a global scale. Metabolic flux (fluxome) analysis displays the first systems oriented approach to unravel the physiology of microorganisms since it combines experimental data with metabolic network models and allows determining absolute fluxes through larger networks of central carbon metabolism. Hereby, fluxes are of central importance for systems level understanding because they fundamentally represent the cellular phenotype as integrated output of the cellular components, i.e. genes, transcripts, proteins, and metabolites. A currently emerging and promising area of research in systems biology and systems metabolic engineering is therefore the integration of fluxome data in multi-omics studies to unravel the multiple layers of control that superimpose the flux network and enable its optimal operation under different environmental conditions.

Bacillus methanolicus pyruvate carboxylase and homoserine dehydrogenase I and II and their roles for L-lysine production from methanol at 50 degrees C

We here present the pyc gene encoding pyruvate carboxylase (PC), and the hom-1 and hom-2 genes encoding two active homoserine dehydrogenase (HD) proteins, in methylotrophic Bacillus methanolicus MGA3. In general, both PC and HD are regarded as key targets for improving bacterial L-lysine production; PC plays a role in precursor oxaloacetate (OAA) supply while HD controls an important branch point in the L-lysine biosynthetic pathway. The hom-1 and hom-2 genes were strongly repressed by L-threonine and L-methionine, respectively. Wild-type MGA3 cells secreted 0.4 g/l L-lysine and 59 g/l L-glutamate under optimised fed batch methanol fermentation. The hom-1 mutant M168-20 constructed herein secreted 11 g/l L-lysine and 69 g/l of L-glutamate, while a sixfold higher L-lysine overproduction (65 g/l) of the previously constructed classical B. methanolicus mutant NOA2#13A52-8A66 was accompanied with reduced L-glutamate production (28 g/l) and threefold elevated pyc transcription level. Overproduction of PC and its mutant enzyme P455S in M168-20 had no positive effect on the volumetric L-lysine yield and the L-lysine yield on methanol, and caused significantly reduced volumetric L-glutamate yield and L: -glutamate yield on methanol. Our results demonstrated that hom-1 represents one key target for achieving L-lysine overproduction, PC activity plays an important role in controlling L-glutamate production from methanol, and that OAA precursor supply is not a major bottleneck for L-lysine overproduction by B. methanolicus.

Analysis and engineering of metabolic pathway fluxes in Corynebacterium glutamicum

The Gram-positive soil bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum was discovered as a natural overproducer of glutamate about 50 years ago. Linked to the steadily increasing economical importance of this microorganism for production of glutamate and other amino acids, the quest for efficient production strains has been an intense area of research during the past few decades. Efficient production strains were created by applying classical mutagenesis and selection and especially metabolic engineering strategies with the advent of recombinant DNA technology. Hereby experimental and computational approaches have provided fascinating insights into the metabolism of this microorganism and directed strain engineering. Today, C. glutamicum is applied to the industrial production of more than 2 million tons of amino acids per year. The huge achievements in recent years, including the sequencing of the complete genome and efficient post genomic approaches, now provide the basis for a new, fascinating era of research - analysis of metabolic and regulatory properties of C. glutamicum on a global scale towards novel and superior bioprocesses.