scholarly journals Multiplex Design of the Metabolic Network for Production of L-Homoserine in Escherichia coli

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (20) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Liu ◽  
Bo Zhang ◽  
Zhen-Hao Yao ◽  
Zhi-Qiang Liu ◽  
Yu-Guo Zheng

ABSTRACT l-Homoserine, which is one of the few amino acids that is not produced on a large scale by microbial fermentation, plays a significant role in the synthesis of a series of valuable chemicals. In this study, systematic metabolic engineering was applied to target Escherichia coli W3110 for the production of l-homoserine. Initially, a basic l-homoserine producer was engineered through the strategies of overexpressing thrA (encoding homoserine dehydrogenase), removing the degradative and competitive pathways by knocking out metA (encoding homoserine O-succinyltransferase) and thrB (encoding homoserine kinase), reinforcing the transport system, and redirecting the carbon flux by deleting iclR (encoding the isocitrate lyase regulator). The resulting strain constructed by these strategies yielded 3.21 g/liter of l-homoserine in batch cultures. Moreover, based on CRISPR-Cas9/dCas9 (nuclease-dead Cas9)-mediated gene repression for 50 genes, the iterative genetic modifications of biosynthesis pathways improved the l-homoserine yield in a stepwise manner. The rational integration of glucose uptake and recovery of l-glutamate increased l-homoserine production to 7.25 g/liter in shake flask cultivation. Furthermore, the intracellular metabolic analysis further provided targets for strain modification by introducing the anaplerotic route afforded by pyruvate carboxylase to oxaloacetate formation, which resulted in accumulating 8.54 g/liter l-homoserine (0.33 g/g glucose, 62.4% of the maximum theoretical yield) in shake flask cultivation. Finally, a rationally designed strain gave 37.57 g/liter l-homoserine under fed-batch fermentation, with a yield of 0.31 g/g glucose. IMPORTANCE In this study, the bottlenecks that sequentially limit l-homoserine biosynthesis were identified and resolved, based on rational and efficient metabolic-engineering strategies, coupled with CRISPR interference (CRISPRi)-based systematic analysis. The metabolomics data largely expanded our understanding of metabolic effects and revealed relevant targets for further modification to achieve better performance. The systematic analysis strategy, as well as metabolomics analysis, can be used to rationally design cell factories for the production of highly valuable chemicals.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongsoo Yang ◽  
Cindy Pricilia Surya Prabowo ◽  
Hyunmin Eun ◽  
Seon Young Park ◽  
In Jin Cho ◽  
...  

Abstract Bio-based production of industrially important chemicals and materials from non-edible and renewable biomass has become increasingly important to resolve the urgent worldwide issues including climate change. Also, bio-based production, instead of chemical synthesis, of food ingredients and natural products has gained ever increasing interest for health benefits. Systems metabolic engineering allows more efficient development of microbial cell factories capable of sustainable, green, and human-friendly production of diverse chemicals and materials. Escherichia coli is unarguably the most widely employed host strain for the bio-based production of chemicals and materials. In the present paper, we review the tools and strategies employed for systems metabolic engineering of E. coli. Next, representative examples and strategies for the production of chemicals including biofuels, bulk and specialty chemicals, and natural products are discussed, followed by discussion on materials including polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), proteins, and nanomaterials. Lastly, future perspectives and challenges remaining for systems metabolic engineering of E. coli are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Enrique Tafur Rangel ◽  
Wendy Lorena Rios Guzman ◽  
Carmen Elvira Ojeda Cuella ◽  
Daissy Esther Mejia Perez ◽  
Ross Carlson ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundGlycerol has become an interesting carbon source for industrial processes as consequence of the biodiesel business growth since it has shown promising results in terms of biomass/substrate yields. Selecting the appropriate metabolic targets to build efficient cell factories and maximize the desired chemical production in as little time as possible is a major challenge in industrial biotechnology. The engineering of microbial metabolism following rational design has been widely studied. However, it is a cost-, time-, and laborious-intensive process because of the cell network complexity; thus, to be proficient is needed known in advance the effects of gene deletions.ResultsAn in silico experiment was performed to model and understand the effects of metabolic engineering over the metabolism by transcriptomics data integration. In this study, systems-based metabolic engineering to predict the metabolic engineering targets was used in order to increase the bioconversion of glycerol to succinic acid by Escherichia coli. Transcriptomics analysis suggest insights of how increase the glycerol utilization of the cell for further design efficient cell factories. Three models were used; an E. coli core model, a model obtained after the integration of transcriptomics data obtained from E. coli growing in an optimized culture media, and a third one obtained after integration of transcriptomics data obtained from E. coli after adaptive laboratory evolution experiments. A total of 2402 strains were obtained from these three models. Fumarase and pyruvate dehydrogenase were frequently predicted in all the models, suggesting that these reactions are essential to increasing succinic acid production from glycerol. Finally, using flux balance analysis results for all the mutants predicted, a machine learning method was developed to predict new mutants as well as to propose optimal metabolic engineering targets and mutants based on the measurement of importance of each knockout’s (feature’s) contribution.ConclusionsThe combination of transcriptome, systems metabolic modeling, and machine learning analyses revealed versatile molecular mechanisms involved in the utilization of glycerol. These data provide a platform to improve the prediction of metabolic engineering targets to design efficient cell factories. Our results may also work a guide platform for the selection/engineering of microorganisms for production of interesting chemical compounds.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (14) ◽  
pp. 3136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaobao Wang ◽  
JingXin Sun ◽  
Qun Yang ◽  
Jianming Yang

Lycopene, a potent antioxidant, has been widely used in the fields of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics. However, the production of lycopene extracted from natural sources is far from meeting the demand. Consequently, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering have been employed to develop microbial cell factories for lycopene production. Due to the advantages of rapid growth, complete genetic background, and a reliable genetic operation technique, Escherichia coli has become the preferred host cell for microbial biochemicals production. In this review, the recent advances in biological lycopene production using engineered E. coli strains are summarized: First, modification of the endogenous MEP pathway and introduction of the heterogeneous MVA pathway for lycopene production are outlined. Second, the common challenges and strategies for lycopene biosynthesis are also presented, such as the optimization of other metabolic pathways, modulation of regulatory networks, and optimization of auxiliary carbon sources and the fermentation process. Finally, the future prospects for the improvement of lycopene biosynthesis are also discussed.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bing-Yao Sun ◽  
Xin-Yi Tao ◽  
Hua-Lu Sui ◽  
Feng-Qing Wang ◽  
Qing-Hai Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The production of bioactive compounds using microbial hosts is considered a safe, cost competitive and scalable approach. However, the efficient engineering of cell factories with well stability, such as for the production of L-aspartate family amino acids and derivatives, remains an outstanding challenge.Results: In the work, the toxin/antitoxin system and genome modification strategy were used to construct a stable Escherichia coli strain for L-homoserine production. The metabolic engineering strategies were focused on the enhancement of precursors for L-homoserine synthesis, reinforcement of the NADPH generation and efflux transporters using CRISPR-Cas9 system at the genome level. To improve the plasmid stability, two strategies were explored, including construction of the aspartate-auxotrophic and hok/sok systems. Constructing the auxotrophic complementation system to maintain plasmid stability was failed herein. The plasmid stability was improved by introducing the hok/sok system, resulting in 6.1 g/L (shake flask) and 44.4 g/L (5 L fermenter) L-homoserine production of the final engineered strain SHL19 without antibiotics addition. Moreover, the hok/sok system was also used to improve the plasmid stability for ectoine production, resulting in 36.7% and 46.5% higher titer of ectoine at shake flask and 5L fermenter without antibiotics addition, respectively. Conclusion: This work provides valuable strategies to improve plasmid stability for producing L-aspartate family amino acids and derivatives and eliminate environmental concerns associated with the application of antibiotics.


Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1017
Author(s):  
Jian Xu ◽  
Li Zhou ◽  
Zhemin Zhou

β-alanine is widely used as an intermediate in industrial production. However, the low production of microbial cell factories limits its further application. Here, to improve the biosynthesis production of β-alanine in Escherichia coli, multivariate modular metabolic engineering was recruited to manipulate the β-alanine biosynthesis pathway through keeping the balance of metabolic flux among the whole metabolic network. The β-alanine biosynthesis pathway was separated into three modules: the β-alanine biosynthesis module, TCA module, and glycolysis module. Global regulation was performed throughout the entire β-alanine biosynthesis pathway rationally and systematically by optimizing metabolic flux, overcoming metabolic bottlenecks and weakening branch pathways. As a result, metabolic flux was channeled in the direction of β-alanine biosynthesis without huge metabolic burden, and 37.9 g/L β-alanine was generated by engineered Escherichia coli strain B0016-07 in fed-batch fermentation. This study was meaningful to the synthetic biology of β-alanine industrial production.


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