Enhancement of Thermal Resistance by Metal Ions in Thermotolerant Zymomonas mobilis TISTR 548

Molecular basis and functional development of membrane-based microbial metabolism

My research interest has so far been focused on metabolisms related to the "membrane" of microorganisms, such as the respiratory chain, membrane proteins, sugar uptake, membrane stress and cell lysis, and fermentation. These basic metabolisms are important for the growth and survival of cell, and their knowledge can be used for efficient production of useful materials. Notable achievements in research on metabolisms are elucidation of the structure and function of membrane-bound glucose dehydrogenase as a primary enzyme in the respiratory chain, elucidation of ingenious expression regulation of several operons or by divergent promoters, elucidation of stress-induced programed-cell lysis and its requirement for survival during a long-term stationary phase, elucidation of molecular mechanism of survival at a critical high temperature, elucidation of thermal adaptation and its limit, isolation of thermotolerant fermenting yeast strains, and development of high-temperature fermentation and green energy production technologies. These achievements are described together in this review.

Sorbitol production from mixtures of molasses and sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate using the thermally adapted Zymomonas mobilis ZM AD41

Byproducts from the sugarcane manufacturing process, specifically sugarcane molasses (SM) and sugarcane bagasse (SB), can be used as alternative raw materials for sorbitol production via the biological fermentation process. This study investigated the production of sorbitol from SM and sugarcane bagasse hydrolysate (SBH) using a thermally adapted Zymomonas mobilis ZM AD41. Various combinations of SM and SBH on sorbitol production using batch fermentation process were tested. The results revealed that SM alone (FM1) or a mixture of SM and SBH at a ratio of 3:1 (FM2) based on the sugar mass in the raw material proved to be the best condition for sorbitol production by ZM AD41 at 37 °C. Further optimization conditions for sorbitol production revealed that a sugar concentration of 200 g/L and a CaCl2 concentration of 5.0 g/L yielded the highest sorbitol content. The maximum sorbitol concentrations produced by ZM AD41 in the fermentation medium containing SM (FM1) or a mixture of SM and SBH (FM2) were 31.23 and 30.45 g/L, respectively, comparable to those reported in the literature using sucrose or a mixture of sucrose and maltose as feedstock. These results suggested that SBH could be used as an alternative feedstock to supplement or blend with SM for sustainable sorbitol production. In addition, the fermentation conditions established in this study could also be applied to large-scale sorbitol production. Moreover, the thermally adapted Z. mobilis ZM AD41 is also a promising sorbitol-producing bacterium for large-scale production at a relatively high fermentation temperature using agricultural byproducts, specifically SM and SB, as feedstock, which could reduce the operating cost due to minimizing the energy required for the cooling system.

Current advances for omics-guided process optimization of microbial manufacturing

Currently, microbial manufacturing is widely used in various fields, such as food, medicine and energy, for its advantages of greenness and sustainable development. Process optimization is the committed step enabling the commercialization of microbial manufacturing products. However, the present optimization processes mainly rely on experience or trial-and-error method ignoring the intrinsic connection between cellular physiological requirement and production performance, so in many cases the productivity of microbial manufacturing could not been fully exploited at economically feasible cost. Recently, the rapid development of omics technologies facilitates the comprehensive analysis of microbial metabolism and fermentation performance from multi-levels of molecules, cells and microenvironment. The use of omics technologies makes the process optimization more explicit, boosting microbial manufacturing performance and bringing significant economic benefits and social value. In this paper, the traditional and omics technologies-guided process optimization of microbial manufacturing are systematically reviewed, and the future trend of process optimization is prospected.

Genome Copy Number Quantification Revealed That the Ethanologenic Alpha-Proteobacterium Zymomonas mobilis Is Polyploid

The alpha-proteobacterium Zymomonas mobilis is a promising biofuel producer, based on its native metabolism that efficiently converts sugars to ethanol. Therefore, it has a high potential for industrial-scale biofuel production. Two previous studies suggested that Z. mobilis strain Zm4 might not be monoploid. However, a systematic analysis of the genome copy number is still missing, in spite of the high potential importance of Z. mobilis. To get a deep insight into the ploidy level of Z. mobilis and its regulation, the genome copy numbers of three strains were quantified. The analyses revealed that, during anaerobic growth, the lab strain Zm6, the Zm6 type strain obtained from DSMZ (German Collection of Microorganisms), and the lab strain Zm4, have copy numbers of 18.9, 22.3 and 16.2, respectively, of an origin-adjacent region. The copy numbers of a terminus-adjacent region were somewhat lower with 9.3, 15.8, and 12.9, respectively. The values were similar throughout the growth curves, and they were only slightly downregulated in late stationary phase. During aerobic growth, the copy numbers of the lab strain Zm6 were much higher with around 40 origin-adjacent copies and 17 terminus-adjacent copies. However, the cells were larger during aerobic growth, and the copy numbers per μm³ cell volume were rather similar. Taken together, this first systematic analysis revealed that Z. mobilis is polyploid under regular laboratory growth conditions. The copy number is constant during growth, in contrast to many other polyploid bacteria. This knowledge should be considered in further engineering of the strain for industrial applications.

Investigation of the impact of a broad range of temperatures on the physiological and transcriptional profiles of Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 for high-temperature-tolerant recombinant strain development

The model ethanologenic bacterium Zymomonas mobilis has many advantages for diverse biochemical production. Although the impact of temperature especially high temperature on the growth and ethanol production of Z. mobilis has been reported, the transcriptional profiles of Z. mobilis grown at different temperatures have not been systematically investigated. In this study, Z. mobilis wild-type strain ZM4 was used to study the effect of a broad range of temperatures of 24, 30, 36, 40, and 45 °C on cell growth and morphology, glucose utilization and ethanol production, as well as the corresponding global gene expression profiles using RNA-Seq-based transcriptomics. In addition, a recombinant Z. mobilis strain expressing reporter gene EGFP (ZM4_EGFP) was constructed to study the effect of temperature on heterologous protein expression at different temperatures. Our result demonstrated that the effect of temperature on the growth and morphology of ZM4 and ZM4_EGFP were similar. The biomass of these two strains decreased along with the temperature increase, and an optimal temperature range is needed for efficient glucose utilization and ethanol production. Temperatures lower or higher than normal temperature investigated in this work was not favorable for the glucose utilization and ethanol production as well as the expression of exogenous protein EGFP based on the results of flow cytometry and Western blot. Temperature also affected the transcriptional profiles of Z. mobilis especially under high temperature. Compared with ZM4 cultured at 30 °C, 478 genes were up-regulated and 481 genes were down-regulated at 45 °C. The number of differentially expressed genes of ZM4 cultured at other temperatures (24, 36 or 40 °C) was relatively small though compared with those at 30 °C. Since temperature usually increases during the fermentation process, and heat tolerance is one of the important robustness traits of industrial strains, candidate genes related to heat resistance based on our RNA-Seq result and literature report were then selected for genetics study using the strategies of plasmid overexpression of candidate gene or replacement of the native promoter of candidate gene by an inducible Ptet promoter. The genetics studies indicated that ZMO0236, ZMO1335, ZMO0994, operon groESL, and cspL, which encodes Mrp family chromosome partitioning ATPase, flavoprotein WrbA, an uncharacterized protein, chaperonin Cpn10 and GroEL, and an exogenous cold shock protein, respectively, were associated with heat tolerance, and recombinant strains over-expressing these genes can improve their heat tolerance. Our work thus not only explored the effects of temperature on the expression of exogenous gene EGFP and endogenous genes, but also selected and confirmed several genes associated with heat tolerance in Z. mobilis, which provided a guidance on identifying candidate genes associated with phenotypic improvement through systems biology strategy and genetics studies for other microorganisms.

The Magnesium Concentration in Yeast Extracts Is a Major Determinant Affecting Ethanol Fermentation Performance of Zymomonas mobilis

Zymomonas mobilis is a model ethanologenic bacterium for diverse biochemical production. Rich medium (RM) is a complex medium that is routinely used to cultivate Z. mobilis, which contains carbon sources such as glucose, nitrogen sources such as yeast extract (YE), and KH2PO4. Glucose consumption and cell growth of Z. mobilis is usually coupled during ethanol fermentation. However, sometimes glucose was not consumed during the exponential growth phase, and it took extended time for cells to consume glucose and produce ethanol, which eventually reduced the ethanol productivity. In this study, the effects of different nitrogen sources, as well as the supplementation of an additional nitrogen source into RM and minimal medium (MM), on cell growth and glucose consumption of Z. mobilis were investigated to understand the uncoupled cell growth and glucose consumption. Our results indicated that nitrogen sources such as YE from different companies affected cell growth, glucose utilization, and ethanol production. We also quantified the concentrations of major ion elements in different nitrogen sources using the quantitative analytic approach of Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES), and demonstrated that magnesium ion in the media affected cell growth, glucose consumption, and ethanol production. The effect of magnesium on gene expression was further investigated using RNA-Seq transcriptomics. Our results indicated that the lack of Mg2+ triggered stress responses, and the expression of genes involved in energy metabolism was reduced. Our work thus demonstrated that Mg2+concentration in nitrogen sources is essential for vigorous cell growth and ethanol fermentation, and the difference of Mg2+concentration in different YE is one of the major factors affecting the coupled cell growth, glucose consumption and ethanol fermentation in Z. mobilis. We also revealed that genes responsive for Mg2+ deficiency in the medium were majorly related to stress responses and energy conservation. The importance of magnesium on cell growth and ethanol fermentation suggests that metal ions should become one of the parameters for monitoring the quality of commercial nitrogen sources and optimizing microbial culture medium.