scholarly journals Resurrecting essential amino acid biosynthesis in a mammalian cell

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Trolle ◽  
Ross M. McBee ◽  
Andrew Kaufman ◽  
Sudarshan Pinglay ◽  
Henri Berger ◽  
...  

Major genomic deletions in independent eukaryotic lineages have led to repeated ancestral loss of biosynthesis pathways for nine of the twenty canonical amino acids1. While the evolutionary forces driving these polyphyletic deletion events are not well understood, the consequence is that extant metazoans are unable to produce nine essential amino acids (EAAs). Previous studies have highlighted that EAA biosynthesis tends to be more energetically costly2,3, raising the possibility that these pathways were lost from organisms with access to abundant EAAs in the environment4,5. It is unclear whether present-day metazoans can reaccept these pathways to resurrect biosynthetic capabilities that were lost long ago or whether evolution has rendered EAA pathways incompatible with metazoan metabolism. Here, we report progress on a large-scale synthetic genomics effort to reestablish EAA biosynthetic functionality in a mammalian cell. We designed codon-optimized biosynthesis pathways based on genes mined from Escherichia coli. These pathways were de novo synthesized in 3 kilobase chunks, assembled in yeasto and genomically integrated into a Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell line. One synthetic pathway produced valine at a sufficient level for cell viability and proliferation, and thus represents a successful example of metazoan EAA biosynthesis restoration. This prototrophic CHO line grows in valine-free medium, and metabolomics using labeled precursors verified de novo biosynthesis of valine. RNA-seq profiling of the valine prototrophic CHO line showed that the synthetic pathway minimally disrupted the cellular transcriptome. Furthermore, valine prototrophic cells exhibited transcriptional signatures associated with rescue from nutritional starvation. This work demonstrates that mammalian metabolism is amenable to restoration of ancient core pathways, thus paving a path for genome-scale efforts to synthetically restore metabolic functions to the metazoan lineage.

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Belcour ◽  
Clémence Frioux ◽  
Méziane Aite ◽  
Anthony Bretaudeau ◽  
Falk Hildebrand ◽  
...  

To capture the functional diversity of microbiota, one must identify metabolic functions and species of interest within hundreds or thousands of microorganisms. We present Metage2Metabo (M2M) a resource that meets the need for de-novo functional screening of genome-scale metabolic networks (GSMNs) at the scale of a metagenome, and the identification of critical species with respect to metabolic cooperation. M2M comprises a flexible pipeline for the characterisation of individual metabolisms and collective metabolic complementarity. In addition, M2M identifies key species, that are meaningful members of the community for functions of interest. We demonstrate that M2M is applicable to collections of genomes as well as metagenome-assembled genomes, permits an efficient GSMN reconstruction with Pathway Tools, and assesses the cooperation potential between species. M2M identifies key organisms by reducing the complexity of a large-scale microbiota into minimal communities with equivalent properties, suitable for further analyses.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Guardiola ◽  
Monica Varese ◽  
Xavier Roig ◽  
Jesús Garcia ◽  
Ernest Giralt

<p>NOTE: This preprint has been retracted by consensus from all authors. See the retraction notice in place above; the original text can be found under "Version 1", accessible from the version selector above.</p><p><br></p><p>------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p><br></p><p>Peptides, together with antibodies, are among the most potent biochemical tools to modulate challenging protein-protein interactions. However, current structure-based methods are largely limited to natural peptides and are not suitable for designing target-specific binders with improved pharmaceutical properties, such as macrocyclic peptides. Here we report a general framework that leverages the computational power of Rosetta for large-scale backbone sampling and energy scoring, followed by side-chain composition, to design heterochiral cyclic peptides that bind to a protein surface of interest. To showcase the applicability of our approach, we identified two peptides (PD-<i>i</i>3 and PD-<i>i</i>6) that target PD-1, a key immune checkpoint, and work as protein ligand decoys. A comprehensive biophysical evaluation confirmed their binding mechanism to PD-1 and their inhibitory effect on the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction. Finally, elucidation of their solution structures by NMR served as validation of our <i>de novo </i>design approach. We anticipate that our results will provide a general framework for designing target-specific drug-like peptides.<i></i></p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Guardiola ◽  
Monica Varese ◽  
Xavier Roig ◽  
Jesús Garcia ◽  
Ernest Giralt

<p>NOTE: This preprint has been retracted by consensus from all authors. See the retraction notice in place above; the original text can be found under "Version 1", accessible from the version selector above.</p><p><br></p><p>------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p><br></p><p>Peptides, together with antibodies, are among the most potent biochemical tools to modulate challenging protein-protein interactions. However, current structure-based methods are largely limited to natural peptides and are not suitable for designing target-specific binders with improved pharmaceutical properties, such as macrocyclic peptides. Here we report a general framework that leverages the computational power of Rosetta for large-scale backbone sampling and energy scoring, followed by side-chain composition, to design heterochiral cyclic peptides that bind to a protein surface of interest. To showcase the applicability of our approach, we identified two peptides (PD-<i>i</i>3 and PD-<i>i</i>6) that target PD-1, a key immune checkpoint, and work as protein ligand decoys. A comprehensive biophysical evaluation confirmed their binding mechanism to PD-1 and their inhibitory effect on the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction. Finally, elucidation of their solution structures by NMR served as validation of our <i>de novo </i>design approach. We anticipate that our results will provide a general framework for designing target-specific drug-like peptides.<i></i></p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Guardiola ◽  
Monica Varese ◽  
Xavier Roig ◽  
Jesús Garcia ◽  
Ernest Giralt

<p>NOTE: This preprint has been retracted by consensus from all authors. See the retraction notice in place above; the original text can be found under "Version 1", accessible from the version selector above.</p><p><br></p><p>------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p><br></p><p>Peptides, together with antibodies, are among the most potent biochemical tools to modulate challenging protein-protein interactions. However, current structure-based methods are largely limited to natural peptides and are not suitable for designing target-specific binders with improved pharmaceutical properties, such as macrocyclic peptides. Here we report a general framework that leverages the computational power of Rosetta for large-scale backbone sampling and energy scoring, followed by side-chain composition, to design heterochiral cyclic peptides that bind to a protein surface of interest. To showcase the applicability of our approach, we identified two peptides (PD-<i>i</i>3 and PD-<i>i</i>6) that target PD-1, a key immune checkpoint, and work as protein ligand decoys. A comprehensive biophysical evaluation confirmed their binding mechanism to PD-1 and their inhibitory effect on the PD-1/PD-L1 interaction. Finally, elucidation of their solution structures by NMR served as validation of our <i>de novo </i>design approach. We anticipate that our results will provide a general framework for designing target-specific drug-like peptides.<i></i></p>


2021 ◽  
pp. e00649
Author(s):  
Valerie Schmieder ◽  
Neža Novak ◽  
Heena Dhiman ◽  
Ly Ngoc Nguyen ◽  
Evgenija Serafimova ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan G. Chitwood ◽  
Qinghua Wang ◽  
Kathryn Elliott ◽  
Aiyana Bullock ◽  
Dwon Jordana ◽  
...  

Abstract Background As bioprocess intensification has increased over the last 30 years, yields from mammalian cell processes have increased from 10’s of milligrams to over 10’s of grams per liter. Most of these gains in productivity can be attributed to increasing cell densities within bioreactors. As such, strategies have been developed to minimize accumulation of metabolic wastes, such as lactate and ammonia. Unfortunately, neither cell growth nor biopharmaceutical production can occur without some waste metabolite accumulation. Inevitably, metabolic waste accumulation leads to decline and termination of the culture. While it is understood that the accumulation of these unwanted compounds imparts a suboptimal culture environment, little is known about the genotoxic properties of these compounds that may lead to global genome instability. In this study, we examined the effects of high and moderate extracellular ammonia on the physiology and genomic integrity of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Results Through whole genome sequencing, we discovered 2394 variant sites within functional genes comprised of both single nucleotide polymorphisms and insertion/deletion mutations as a result of ammonia stress with high or moderate impact on functional genes. Furthermore, several of these de novo mutations were found in genes whose functions are to maintain genome stability, such as Tp53, Tnfsf11, Brca1, as well as Nfkb1. Furthermore, we characterized microsatellite content of the cultures using the CriGri-PICR Chinese hamster genome assembly and discovered an abundance of microsatellite loci that are not replicated faithfully in the ammonia-stressed cultures. Unfaithful replication of these loci is a signature of microsatellite instability. With rigorous filtering, we found 124 candidate microsatellite loci that may be suitable for further investigation to determine whether these loci may be reliable biomarkers to predict genome instability in CHO cultures. Conclusion This study advances our knowledge with regards to the effects of ammonia accumulation on CHO cell culture performance by identifying ammonia-sensitive genes linked to genome stability and lays the foundation for the development of a new diagnostic tool for assessing genome stability.


2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1813) ◽  
pp. 20150603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun S. Killen ◽  
Julie J. H. Nati ◽  
Cory D. Suski

The harvest of animals by humans may constitute one of the strongest evolutionary forces affecting wild populations. Vulnerability to harvest varies among individuals within species according to behavioural phenotypes, but we lack fundamental information regarding the physiological mechanisms underlying harvest-induced selection. It is unknown, for example, what physiological traits make some individual fish more susceptible to capture by commercial fisheries. Active fishing methods such as trawling pursue fish during harvest attempts, causing fish to use both aerobic steady-state swimming and anaerobic burst-type swimming to evade capture. Using simulated trawling procedures with schools of wild minnows Phoxinus phoxinus , we investigate two key questions to the study of fisheries-induced evolution that have been impossible to address using large-scale trawls: (i) are some individuals within a fish shoal consistently more susceptible to capture by trawling than others?; and (ii) if so, is this related to individual differences in swimming performance and metabolism? Results provide the first evidence of repeatable variation in susceptibility to trawling that is strongly related to anaerobic capacity and swimming ability. Maximum aerobic swim speed was also negatively correlated with vulnerability to trawling. Standard metabolic rate was highest among fish that were least vulnerable to trawling, but this relationship probably arose through correlations with anaerobic capacity. These results indicate that vulnerability to trawling is linked to anaerobic swimming performance and metabolic demand, drawing parallels with factors influencing susceptibility to natural predators. Selection on these traits by fisheries could induce shifts in the fundamental physiological makeup and function of descendent populations.


Circulation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 144 (Suppl_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas S Wilcox ◽  
Stuart Prenner ◽  
Marisa Cevasco ◽  
Courtney Condit ◽  
Amy Goldstein ◽  
...  

Case Presentation: A 29-year-old male with LVH diagnosed in childhood was admitted with acute HF. TTE showed LVEF 5-10% and LV thrombi for which he was anticoagulated. He received inappropriate ICD shocks due to T wave oversensing, leading to cardiogenic shock requiring VA-ECMO support. Serum lactate peaked at 17 mmol/L due to cardiac and metabolic decompensation. He underwent heart transplantation (HT) on hospital day (HD) 8 and tolerated standard immunosuppression. First endomyocardial biopsy showed acute cellular rejection requiring pulse steroids. He was discharged on HD 33. Trio whole exome and mitochondrial genome sequencing revealed biallelic variants in complement component 1Q subcomponent-binding protein ( C1QBP ), due to a maternally inherited likely pathogenic variant c.612C>G (p.F204L in exon 5) and an apparently de novo deletion of 17p13.2, spanning exons 4-6 of C1QBP and exon 6 of the RPAIN gene. Mitochondrial genome sequencing of the explanted heart revealed multiple large-scale mitochondrial DNA deletions at 33% heteroplasmy. Discussion: C1QBP variants are associated with mitochondrial and multi-organ dysfunction. Only 12 patients exhibiting biallelic C1QBP variants are reported. Four died in the peripartum period due to fetal hydrops or HF; 5 exhibited early-onset cardiomyopathy (CM); 3 others had late-onset ophthalmoplegia without CM. The p.F204L variant has been reported in 1 patient with compound C1QBP p.F204L/p.C186S heterozygosity who died from hydrops fetalis and a second with p.F204L homozygosity with late-onset ophthalmoplegia and skeletal myopathy without CM. Differences in the size, heteroplasmy, and tissue distribution of mitochondrial genome secondary deletions may explain variability in disease onset and progression. We present the first patient with biallelic pathogenic C1QBP gene variants with mitochondrial CM to undergo HT and highlight the diagnosis and management of an exceptionally uncommon genetic disorder.


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