A novel one-step expression and immobilization method for the production of biocatalytic preparations

Bacterial Ghosts-Based Vaccine and Drug Delivery Systems

Bacterial ghosts (BGs) are empty bacterial envelopes of Gram-negative bacteria produced by controlled expressions of cloned gene E, forming a lysis tunnel structure within the envelope of the living bacteria. Globally, BGs have been used as vaccine delivery systems and vaccine adjuvants. There is an increasing interest in the development of novel delivery systems that are based on BGs for biomedical applications. Due to intact reservation of bacterial cell membranes, BGs have an inherent immunogenicity, which enables targeted drug delivery and controlled release. As carrier vehicles, BGs protect drugs from interference by external factors. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in BG-based delivery systems against tumors, inflammation, and infection, among others. Herein, we reviewed the preparation methods for BGs, interactions between BGs and the host, and further highlighted research progress in BG development.

Fungal biocatalysts for labdane diterpene hydroxylation

Labdane diterpenes and their derivatives have shown remarkable biological activities and are useful as chiral building blocks for the synthesis of a variety of bioactive compounds. There is great interest in developing biocatalyst technology to achieve regio- and stereoselective hydroxylation of unactivated C-H bonds in complex natural products, since the functionalization of unactivated C-H bonds generally requires hard reaction conditions and highly reactive oxidizing agents, which are limited regarding the control of regio- and stereoselectivity. Filamentous fungi are efficient biocatalysts capable of catalyzing a wide variety of hydroxylation reactions, and the use of whole cell biocatalysts provides advantages regarding cofactor regeneration and is much less expensive. Therefore, the goal of this study was to select biocatalysts to develop biotransformation processes that can be scalable under mild reaction conditions for hydroxylation of a labdane diterpene, 3β-acetoxy-copalic acid, which contains the trans-decalin moiety and a side chain dienic system appropriate for the preparation of a variety of compounds. Biotransformation processes were carried out and five filamentous fungi were selected as capable of producing hydroxylated diterpenes at positions C-3, C-6, C-7 and C-18 of the trans-decalin moiety and C-13 of the side chain dienic system. Hydroxylation reactions occurred with regio- and stereoselectivity by using some fungi that produced only the 6α, 7α and 13α-hydroxyl derivatives. The chemical structures of the hydroxylated diterpenes were determined from spectrometric and spectroscopic data, and the relative stereochemistry of stereogenic centers was established from coupling constants, by NOE-diff experiments and/or by computational calculations.

A novel autolysis system for extracellular production and direct immobilization of a phospholipase D fused with cellulose binding domain

Background

Several types of phospholipases have been described in phospholipids modification. The majority of phospholipase D (PLD) superfamily members can catalyze two separate reactions: the hydrolysis of phospholipids to produce phosphatidic acid (PA) and the transphosphatidylation of phosphatidyl groups into various phosphatidyl alcohols to produce modified phospholipids. Transphosphatidylation is a useful biocatalytic method for the synthesis of functional phospholipids from lecithin or phosphatidylcholine (PC), which are both easily accessible. Different PLD coding genes have been cloned from various sources from viral, prokaryotic, and eukaryotic organisms. Despite the catalytic potential of PLD, their low productivity has hampered their practical applications, probably because PLD, which is highly toxic to the host cells, when transformation of the PLD genes into the host cells, degrade PLs in the cell membrane. In this study, we designed a novel two-step expression system to produce and secrete recombinant PLD in extracellular medium, cellulose-binding domains as an affinity fused with PLD for immobilization and purification proteins.

Results

The engineered BL21 (DE3) host strain, which harbored the final expression vector pET28a-PLD-CBD-araC-ESN, was induced by IPTG and L-arabinose, the cell density decreased rapidly over a 2 h period and the enzymes released into the extracellular medium accounts owned 81.75% hydrolytic activity. Scanning electron microscopy results showed that there were obvious structural changes on the cell surface. The extracellularly secreted PLD-CBD powder was used to catalyze the transphosphatidylation reaction synthesis of phosphatidylserine, 2.3 U enzymes reacted for 12 h, during which the conversion rate reached 99% with very few by-products being produced. When the fused protein PLD-CBD immobilized on microcrystalline cellulose, the enzymes can be cycle used five times with 26% conversion rate was preserved.

Conclusions

This study introduced an effective method for use in the expression of recombinant proteins and their extracellular secretion that simplifies the steps of sonication and purification and demonstrates great potential in the industrial application of enzymes. Cellulose as the most abundant renewable biomass resources in nature, and the cost is low, used for PLD immobilization make it more simple, effective and sustainable.

Purification-independent immunoreagents obtained by displaying nanobodies on bacteria surface

The availability of preimmune libraries of antibody fragments allows for the fast generation of binders which can be expressed in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic systems. We exploited the recombinant nature of antibody fragments to demonstrate the possibility of expressing them as functional proteins displayed on the surface of Escherichia coli and by such a way to generate living reagents ready-to-use for diagnostics. Such immunoreagents were effectively exploited without the necessity of any purification step to prepare immunocapture surfaces suitable for the diagnostic of both cancer cells and toxic microalgae. The same nanobody-displaying bacteria were also engineered to coexpress GFP in their cytoplasm. Suspensions of such living fluorescent immunoreagents effectively bound to eukaryotic cells making them visible and quantifiable by flow cytometry analysis and using 96-well plate readers. The collected data showed the suitability of such living immunoreagents for reproducible and inexpensive diagnostic applications.

Bioengineering toward direct production of immobilized enzymes: A paradigm shift in biocatalyst design

The need for cost-effectively produced and improved biocatalysts for industrial, pharmaceutical and environmental processes is steadily increasing. While enzyme properties themselves can be improved via protein engineering, immobilization by attachment to carrier materials remains a critical step for stabilization and process implementation. A new emerging immobilization approach, the in situ immobilization, enables simultaneous production of highly active enzymes and carrier materials using bioengineering/synthetic biology of microbial cells. In situ enzyme immobilization holds the promise of cost-effective production of highly functional immobilized biocatalysts for uses such as in bioremediation, drug synthesis, bioenergy and food processing.

A novel method to recover inclusion body protein from recombinant E. coli fed-batch processes based on phage ΦX174-derived lysis protein E

Production of recombinant proteins as inclusion bodies is an important strategy in the production of technical enzymes and biopharmaceutical products. So far, protein from inclusion bodies has been recovered from the cell factory through mechanical or chemical disruption methods, requiring additional cost-intensive unit operations. We describe a novel method that is using a bacteriophage-derived lysis protein to directly recover inclusion body protein from Escherichia coli from high cell density fermentation process: The recombinant inclusion body product is expressed by using a mixed feed fed-batch process which allows expression tuning via adjusting the specific uptake rate of the inducing substrate. Then, bacteriophage ΦX174-derived lysis protein E is expressed to induce cell lysis. Inclusion bodies in empty cell envelopes are harvested via centrifugation of the fermentation broth. A subsequent solubilization step reveals the recombinant protein. The process was investigated by analyzing the impact of fermentation conditions on protein E-mediated cell lysis as well as cell lysis kinetics. Optimal cell lysis efficiencies of 99% were obtained with inclusion body titers of >2.0 g/l at specific growth rates higher 0.12 h^-1 and inducer uptake rates below 0.125 g/(g × h). Protein E-mediated cell disruption showed a first-order kinetics with a kinetic constant of -0.8 ± 0.3 h^-1. This alternative inclusion body protein isolation technique was compared to the one via high-pressure homogenization. SDS gel analysis showed 10% less protein impurities when cells had been disrupted via high-pressure homogenization, than when empty cell envelopes including inclusion bodies were investigated. Within this contribution, an innovative technology, tuning recombinant protein production and substituting cost-intensive mechanical cell disruption, is presented. We anticipate that the presented method will simplify and reduce the production costs of inclusion body processes to produce technical enzymes and biopharmaceutical products.

Functional display of ice nucleation protein InaZ on the surface of bacterial ghosts

In a concept study the ability to induce heterogeneous ice formation by Bacterial Ghosts (BGs) from Escherichia coli carrying ice nucleation protein InaZ from Pseudomonas syringae in their outer membrane was investigated by a droplet-freezing assay of ultra-pure water. As determined by the median freezing temperature and cumulative ice nucleation spectra it could be demonstrated that both the living recombinant E. coli and their corresponding BGs functionally display InaZ on their surface. Under the production conditions chosen both samples belong to type II ice-nucleation particles inducing ice formation at a temperature range of between -5.6 °C and -6.7 °C, respectively. One advantage for the application of such BGs over their living recombinant mother bacteria is that they are non-living native cell envelopes retaining the biophysical properties of ice nucleation and do no longer represent genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Rapid enzyme regeneration results in the striking catalytic longevity of an engineered, single species, biocatalytic biofilm

BACKGROUND

Engineering of single-species biofilms for enzymatic generation of fine chemicals is attractive. We have recently demonstrated the utility of an engineered Escherichia coli biofilm as a platform for synthesis of 5-halotryptophan. E. coli PHL644, expressing a recombinant tryptophan synthase, was employed to generate a biofilm. Its rapid deposition, and instigation of biofilm formation, was enforced by employing a spin-down method. The biofilm presents a large three-dimensional surface area, excellent for biocatalysis. The catalytic longevity of the engineered biofilm is striking, and we had postulated that this was likely to largely result from protection conferred to recombinant enzymes by biofilm's extracellular matrix. SILAC (stable isotopic labelled amino acids in cell cultures), and in particular dynamic SILAC, in which pulses of different isotopically labelled amino acids are administered to cells over a time course, has been used to follow the fate of proteins. To explore within our spin coated biofilm, whether the recombinant enzyme's longevity might be in part due to its regeneration, we introduced pulses of isotopically labelled lysine and phenylalanine into medium overlaying the biofilm and followed their incorporation over the course of biofilm development.

RESULTS

Through SILAC analysis, we reveal that constant and complete regeneration of recombinant enzymes occurs within spin coated biofilms. The striking catalytic longevity within the biofilm results from more than just simple protection of active enzyme by the biofilm and its associated extracellular matrix. The replenishment of recombinant enzyme is likely to contribute significantly to the catalytic longevity observed for the engineered biofilm system.

CONCLUSIONS

Here we provide the first evidence of a recombinant enzyme's regeneration in an engineered biofilm. The recombinant enzyme was constantly replenished over time as evidenced by dynamic SILAC, which suggests that the engineered E. coli biofilms are highly metabolically active, having a not inconsiderable energetic demand. The constant renewal of recombinant enzyme highlights the attractive possibility of utilising this biofilm system as a dynamic platform into which enzymes of interest can be introduced in a "plug-and-play" fashion and potentially be controlled through promoter switching for production of a series of desired fine chemicals.

Enzyme Engineering for In Situ Immobilization

Enzymes are used as biocatalysts in a vast range of industrial applications. Immobilization of enzymes to solid supports or their self-assembly into insoluble particles enhances their applicability by strongly improving properties such as stability in changing environments, re-usability and applicability in continuous biocatalytic processes. The possibility of co-immobilizing various functionally related enzymes involved in multistep synthesis, conversion or degradation reactions enables the design of multifunctional biocatalyst with enhanced performance compared to their soluble counterparts. This review provides a brief overview of up-to-date in vitro immobilization strategies while focusing on recent advances in enzyme engineering towards in situ self-assembly into insoluble particles. In situ self-assembly approaches include the bioengineering of bacteria to abundantly form enzymatically active inclusion bodies such as enzyme inclusions or enzyme-coated polyhydroxyalkanoate granules. These one-step production strategies for immobilized enzymes avoid prefabrication of the carrier as well as chemical cross-linking or attachment to a support material while the controlled oriented display strongly enhances the fraction of accessible catalytic sites and hence functional enzymes.

Recent advances in whole cell biocatalysis techniques bridging from investigative to industrial scale

Recent advances in biocatalysis have strongly boosted its recognition as a valuable addition to traditional chemical synthesis routes. As for any catalytic process, catalyst's costs and stabilities are of highest relevance for the economic application in chemical manufacturing. Employing biocatalysts as whole cells circumvents the need of cell lysis and enzyme purification and hence strongly cuts on cost. At the same time, residual cell wall components can shield the entrapped enzyme from potentially harmful surroundings and aid to enable applications far from natural enzymatic environments. Further advantages are the close proximity of reactants and catalysts as well as the inherent presence of expensive cofactors. Here, we review and comment on benefits and recent advances in whole cell biocatalysis.

Fed-Batch Production of Bacterial Ghosts Using Dielectric Spectroscopy for Dynamic Process Control

The Bacterial Ghost (BG) platform technology evolved from a microbiological expression system incorporating the ϕX174 lysis gene E. E-lysis generates empty but structurally intact cell envelopes (BGs) from Gram-negative bacteria which have been suggested as candidate vaccines, immunotherapeutic agents or drug delivery vehicles. E-lysis is a highly dynamic and complex biological process that puts exceptional demands towards process understanding and control. The development of a both economic and robust fed-batch production process for BGs required a toolset capable of dealing with rapidly changing concentrations of viable biomass during the E-lysis phase. This challenge was addressed using a transfer function combining dielectric spectroscopy and soft-sensor based biomass estimation for monitoring the rapid decline of viable biomass during the E-lysis phase. The transfer function was implemented to a feed-controller, which followed the permittivity signal closely and was capable of maintaining a constant specific substrate uptake rate during lysis phase. With the described toolset, we were able to increase the yield of BG production processes by a factor of 8–10 when compared to currently used batch procedures reaching lysis efficiencies >98%. This provides elevated potentials for commercial application of the Bacterial Ghost platform technology.