scholarly journals Disruption of the Snf1 Gene Enhances Cell Growth and Reduces the Metabolic Burden in Cellulase-Expressing and Lipid-Accumulating Yarrowia lipolytica

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Wei ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Eric P. Knoshaug ◽  
Xiaowen Chen ◽  
Stefanie Van Wychen ◽  
...  

Yarrowia lipolytica is known to be capable of metabolizing glucose and accumulating lipids intracellularly; however, it lacks the cellulolytic enzymes needed to break down cellulosic biomass directly. To develop Y. lipolytica as a consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) microorganism, we previously expressed the heterologous CBH I, CBH II, and EG II cellulase enzymes both individually and collectively in this microorganism. We concluded that the coexpression of these cellulases resulted in a metabolic drain on the host cells leading to reduced cell growth and lipid accumulation. The current study aims to build a new cellulase coexpressing platform to overcome these hinderances by (1) knocking out the sucrose non-fermenting 1 (Snf1) gene that represses the energetically expensive lipid and protein biosynthesis processes, and (2) knocking in the cellulase cassette fused with the recyclable selection marker URA3 gene in the background of a lipid-accumulating Y. lipolytica strain overexpressing ATP citrate lyase (ACL) and diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGA1) genes. We have achieved a homologous recombination insertion rate of 58% for integrating the cellulases-URA3 construct at the disrupted Snf1 site in the genome of host cells. Importantly, we observed that the disruption of the Snf1 gene promoted cell growth and lipid accumulation and lowered the cellular saturated fatty acid level and the saturated to unsaturated fatty acid ratio significantly in the transformant YL163t that coexpresses cellulases. The result suggests a lower endoplasmic reticulum stress in YL163t, in comparison with its parent strain Po1g ACL-DGA1. Furthermore, transformant YL163t increased in vitro cellulolytic activity by 30%, whereas the “total in vivo newly formed FAME (fatty acid methyl esters)” increased by 16% in comparison with a random integrative cellulase-expressing Y. lipolytica mutant in the same YNB-Avicel medium. The Snf1 disruption platform demonstrated in this study provides a potent tool for the further development of Y. lipolytica as a robust host for the expression of cellulases and other commercially important proteins.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth L. I. Wightman ◽  
Heinrich Kroukamp ◽  
Isak S. Pretorius ◽  
Ian T. Paulsen ◽  
Helena K. M. Nevalainen

Abstract Background For the economic production of biofuels and other valuable products from lignocellulosic waste material, a consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) organism is required. With efficient fermentation capability and attractive industrial qualities, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a preferred candidate and has been engineered to produce enzymes that hydrolyze cellulosic biomass. Efficient cellulose hydrolysis requires the synergistic action of several enzymes, with the optimum combined activity ratio dependent on the composition of the substrate. Results In vitro SCRaMbLE generated a library of plasmids containing different ratios of a β-glucosidase gene (CEL3A) from Saccharomycopsis fibuligera and an endoglucanase gene (CEL5A) from Trichoderma reesei. S. cerevisiae, transformed with the plasmid library, displayed a range of individual enzyme activities and synergistic capabilities. Furthermore, we show for the first time that 4,6-O-(3-ketobutylidene)-4-nitrophenyl-β-d-cellopentaoside (BPNPG5) is a suitable substrate to determine synergistic Cel3A and Cel5A action and an accurate predictive model for this synergistic action was devised. Strains with highest BPNPG5 activity had an average CEL3A and CEL5A gene cassette copy number of 1.3 ± 0.6 and 0.8 ± 0.2, respectively (ratio of 1.6:1). Conclusions Here, we describe a synthetic biology approach to rapidly optimise gene copy numbers to achieve efficient synergistic substrate hydrolysis. This study demonstrates how in vitro SCRaMbLE can be applied to rapidly combine gene constructs in various ratios to allow screening of synergistic enzyme activities for efficient substrate hydrolysis.


2002 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 506-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee R. Lynd ◽  
Paul J. Weimer ◽  
Willem H. van Zyl ◽  
Isak S. Pretorius

SUMMARY Fundamental features of microbial cellulose utilization are examined at successively higher levels of aggregation encompassing the structure and composition of cellulosic biomass, taxonomic diversity, cellulase enzyme systems, molecular biology of cellulase enzymes, physiology of cellulolytic microorganisms, ecological aspects of cellulase-degrading communities, and rate-limiting factors in nature. The methodological basis for studying microbial cellulose utilization is considered relative to quantification of cells and enzymes in the presence of solid substrates as well as apparatus and analysis for cellulose-grown continuous cultures. Quantitative description of cellulose hydrolysis is addressed with respect to adsorption of cellulase enzymes, rates of enzymatic hydrolysis, bioenergetics of microbial cellulose utilization, kinetics of microbial cellulose utilization, and contrasting features compared to soluble substrate kinetics. A biological perspective on processing cellulosic biomass is presented, including features of pretreated substrates and alternative process configurations. Organism development is considered for “consolidated bioprocessing” (CBP), in which the production of cellulolytic enzymes, hydrolysis of biomass, and fermentation of resulting sugars to desired products occur in one step. Two organism development strategies for CBP are examined: (i) improve product yield and tolerance in microorganisms able to utilize cellulose, or (ii) express a heterologous system for cellulose hydrolysis and utilization in microorganisms that exhibit high product yield and tolerance. A concluding discussion identifies unresolved issues pertaining to microbial cellulose utilization, suggests approaches by which such issues might be resolved, and contrasts a microbially oriented cellulose hydrolysis paradigm to the more conventional enzymatically oriented paradigm in both fundamental and applied contexts.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth L. I. Wightman ◽  
Heinrich Kroukamp ◽  
Isak S. Pretorius ◽  
Ian T. Paulsen ◽  
Helena K. M. Nevalainen

Abstract Background For the economic production of biofuels and other valuable products from lignocellulosic waste material, a consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) organism is required. With efficient fermentation capability and attractive industrial qualities, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a preferred candidate and has been engineered to produce enzymes that hydrolyze cellulosic biomass. Efficient cellulose hydrolysis requires the synergistic action of several enzymes; with the optimum combined activity ratio dependent on the composition of the substrate. Results In vitro SCRaMbLE generated a library of plasmids containing different ratios of a β-glucosidase gene ( CEL3A ) from Saccharomycopsis fibuligera and an endoglucanase gene ( CEL5A ) from Trichoderma reesei . S. cerevisiae , transformed with the plasmid library, displayed a range of individual enzyme activities and synergistic capabilities. Furthermore, we show for the first time that BPNPG5 (Megazyme®) is a suitable substrate to determine synergistic Cel3A and Cel5A action and an accurate predictive model for this synergistic action was devised. Strains with highest BPNPG5 activity had an average CEL3A and CEL5A gene cassette copy number of 1.3 ± 0.6 and 0.8 ± 0.2 respectively (ratio of 1.6:1). Conclusions Here we describe a synthetic biology approach to rapidly optimize gene copy numbers to achieve efficient synergistic substrate hydrolysis. This study demonstrates how in vitro SCRaMbLE can be applied to rapidly combine gene constructs in various ratios to allow screening of synergistic enzyme activities for efficient substrate hydrolysis.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth L. I. Wightman ◽  
Heinrich Kroukamp ◽  
Isak S. Pretorius ◽  
Ian T. Paulsen ◽  
Helena K. M. Nevalainen

Abstract Background: For the economic production of biofuels and other valuable products from lignocellulosic waste material, a consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) organism is required. With efficient fermentation capability and attractive industrial qualities, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a preferred candidate and has been engineered to produce enzymes that hydrolyze cellulosic biomass. Efficient cellulose hydrolysis requires the synergistic action of several enzymes; with the optimum combined activity ratio dependent on the composition of the substrate. Results: In vitro SCRaMbLE generated a library of plasmids containing different ratios of a β-glucosidase gene (CEL3A) from Saccharomycopsis fibuligera and an endoglucanase gene (CEL5A) from Trichoderma reesei. S. cerevisiae, transformed with the plasmid library, displayed a range of individual enzyme activities and synergistic capabilities. Furthermore, we show for the first time that 4,6-O-(3-Ketobutylidene)-4-nitrophenyl-β-D-cellopentaoside (BPNPG5) is a suitable substrate to determine synergistic Cel3A and Cel5A action and an accurate predictive model for this synergistic action was devised. Strains with highest BPNPG5 activity had an average CEL3A and CEL5A gene cassette copy number of 1.3 ± 0.6 and 0.8 ± 0.2 respectively (ratio of 1.6:1). Conclusions: Here we describe a synthetic biology approach to rapidly optimize gene copy numbers to achieve efficient synergistic substrate hydrolysis. This study demonstrates how in vitro SCRaMbLE can be applied to rapidly combine gene constructs in various ratios to allow screening of synergistic enzyme activities for efficient substrate hydrolysis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Hackl ◽  
Edward V. Contrada ◽  
Jonathan E. Ash ◽  
Atharv Kulkarni ◽  
Jinho Yoon ◽  
...  

To rationally engineer more efficient cellulolytic enzymes for cellulosic biomass deconstruction into sugars for biofuels production, it is necessary to better understand the complex enzyme-substrate interfacial interactions. Carbohydrate binding modules (CBM) are often associated with microbial surface-tethered cellulosomal or freely secreted cellulase enzymes to increase substrate accessibility. However, it is not well known how CBM recognize, bind, and dissociate from polysaccharide surfaces to facilitate efficient cellulolytic activity due to the lack of mechanistic understanding of CBM-substrate interactions. Our work outlines a general approach to methodically study the unbinding behavior of CBMs from model polysaccharide surfaces using single-molecule force spectroscopy. Here, we apply acoustic force spectroscopy (AFS) to probe a Clostridium thermocellum cellulosomal scaffoldin protein (CBM3a) and measure its dissociation from nanocellulose surfaces at physiologically relevant, low force loading rates. An automated microfluidic setup and methodology for uniform deposition of insoluble polysaccharides on the AFS chip surfaces is demonstrated. The rupture forces of wild-type CBM3a, and its Y67A mutant, unbinding from nanocellulose surface suggests distinct CBM binding conformations that can also explain the improved cellulolytic activity of cellulase tethered to CBM. Applying established dynamic force spectroscopy theory, the single-molecule unbinding rate at zero force is extrapolated and found to agree well with bulk equilibrium unbinding rates estimated independently using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring. However, our results highlight the limitations of applying classical theory to explain the highly multivalent CBM-cellulose interactions seen at higher cellulose-CBM bond rupture forces (>15pN).


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thu Ha Thi Nguyen ◽  
Seunghye Park ◽  
Jooyeon Jeong ◽  
Ye Sol Shin ◽  
Sang Jun Sim ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Currently, most of the attention in renewable energy industry is focused on the development of alternative, sustainable energy sources. Microalgae are a promising feedstock for biofuel production in response to the energy crisis. The use of metabolic engineering to improve yields of biofuel-related lipid components in microalgae, without affecting cell growth, is now a promising approach to develop more sustainable energy sources and to make this approach more economically feasible. Results The CRISPR-Cas9 system was successfully applied to generate a target-specific knockout of the ELT gene in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . The target gene encodes an enzyme involved in lipid catabolism, in which the knockout phenotype impacts fatty acid degradation. As a result, the knockout mutants show up to 28.52% increased total lipid accumulation in comparison with the wild-type strain. This is also accompanied by a shift in the fatty acid composition with an increase of up to 27.2% in the C18:1 proportion. These changes do not significantly impact cell growth. Conclusion This study provides useful insights for the improvement of the oleaginous microalgae strain for biodiesel production. The acquired elt mutants showed improved lipid accumulation and productivity without compromising the growth rate.


Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 903
Author(s):  
Jen-Ying Hsu ◽  
Hui-Hsuan Lin ◽  
Charng-Cherng Chyau ◽  
Zhi-Hong Wang ◽  
Jing-Hsien Chen

Saturated fatty acid is one of the important nutrients, but contributes to lipotoxicity in the liver, causing hepatic steatosis. Aqueous pepino leaf extract (AEPL) in the previous study revealed alleviated liver lipid accumulation in metabolic syndrome mice. The study aimed to investigate the mechanism of AEPL on saturated long-chain fatty acid-induced lipotoxicity in HepG2 cells. Moreover, the phytochemical composition of AEPL was identified in the present study. HepG2 cells treated with palmitic acid (PA) were used for exploring the effect of AEPL on lipid accumulation, apoptosis, ER stress, and antioxidant response. The chemical composition of AEPL was analyzed by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS. AEPL treatment reduced PA-induced ROS production and lipid accumulation. Further molecular results revealed that AEPL restored cytochrome c in mitochondria and decreased caspase 3 activity to cease apoptosis. In addition, AEPL in PA-stressed HepG2 cells significantly reduced the ER stress and suppressed SREBP-1 activation for decreasing lipogenesis. For defending PA-induced oxidative stress, AEPL promoted Nrf2 expression and its target genes, SOD1 and GPX3, expressions. The present study suggested that AEPL protected from PA-induced lipotoxicity through reducing ER stress, increasing antioxidant ability, and inhibiting apoptosis. The efficacy of AEPL on lipotoxicity was probably concerned with kaempferol and isorhamnetin derived compounds.


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