Subscriber access provided by Washington University | Libraries
Article
Metabolic engineering of a homoserine-derived non-natural pathway for the de novo production of 1,3-propanediol from glucose Weiqun Zhong, Ye Zhang, Wenjun Wu, Dehua Liu, and ZHEN CHEN ACS Synth. Biol., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.9b00003 • Publication Date (Web): 25 Feb 2019 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on February 28, 2019
Just Accepted “Just Accepted” manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. They are posted online prior to technical editing, formatting for publication and author proofing. The American Chemical Society provides “Just Accepted” as a service to the research community to expedite the dissemination of scientific material as soon as possible after acceptance. “Just Accepted” manuscripts appear in full in PDF format accompanied by an HTML abstract. “Just Accepted” manuscripts have been fully peer reviewed, but should not be considered the official version of record. They are citable by the Digital Object Identifier (DOI®). “Just Accepted” is an optional service offered to authors. Therefore, the “Just Accepted” Web site may not include all articles that will be published in the journal. After a manuscript is technically edited and formatted, it will be removed from the “Just Accepted” Web site and published as an ASAP article. Note that technical editing may introduce minor changes to the manuscript text and/or graphics which could affect content, and all legal disclaimers and ethical guidelines that apply to the journal pertain. ACS cannot be held responsible for errors or consequences arising from the use of information contained in these “Just Accepted” manuscripts.
is published by the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036 Published by American Chemical Society. Copyright © American Chemical Society. However, no copyright claim is made to original U.S. Government works, or works produced by employees of any Commonwealth realm Crown government in the course of their duties.
Page 1 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
1
Metabolic engineering of a homoserine-derived non-natural pathway for the de
2
novo production of 1,3-propanediol from glucose
3
Weiqun Zhong1, Ye Zhang1, Wenjun Wu1, Dehua Liu1,2,3, and Zhen Chen1,2,3*
4
5
1. Key Laboratory of Industrial Biocatalysis (Ministry of Education), Department of
6
Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
7
2. Tsinghua Innovation Center in Dongguan, Dongguan 523808, China
8
3. Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084,
9
China
10
*Corresponding author: Zhen Chen
11
Tel: +86-10-62772130.
E-mail:
[email protected] Fax: +86-10-62792128
12
13
14
15
16 17 18 1
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
19
ABSTRACT
20
Engineering a homoserine-derived non-natural pathway allows heterologous
21
production of 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) from glucose without adding expensive
22
vitamin B12. Due to the lack of efficient enzymes to catalyze the deamination of
23
homoserine and the decarboxylation of 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate, the previously
24
engineered strain can only produce 51.5 mg/L 1, 3-PDO using homoserine and
25
glucose as co-substrates. In this study, we systematically screened the enzymes
26
from different protein families to catalyze the two corresponding reactions and
27
further optimized the selected enzymes by protein engineering. Together with the
28
improvement of homoserine supply by systematic metabolic engineering, an
29
engineered Escherichia coli strain with an optimal combination of aspartate
30
transaminase (aspC) from E. coli, pyruvate decarboxylase (pdc) from Zymomonas
31
mobilis, and alcohol dehydrogenase yqhD from E. coli, can produce 0.32 g/L 1,3-
32
PDO from glucose in shake flask cultivation. The titer of 1,3-PDO was further
33
increased to 0.49 g/L or 0.63 g/L by introducing a point mutation of I472A into pdc
34
gene or constructing a fusion protein between aspC and pdc. This study lays the
35
basis for developing a potential process for 1,3-PDO production from sugars
36
without using expensive coenzyme B12.
37
Keywords: 1,3-propanediol, non-natural pathway, homoserine, enzyme screening,
38
protein engineering, pathway optimization.
2
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 2 of 29
Page 3 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
39
1,3-Propanediol (1,3-PDO) is a very important chemical which has been widely used
40
in different industrial areas, such as solvents, adhesives, antifreeze, and coatings.1,2
41
Especially, 1,3-PDO can be used as a monomer for the synthesis of several high-
42
performance polymers including the well-known polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT).
43
Biological production of 1,3-PDO from renewable resources has received broad
44
attention in the past two decades.3,4 Natural producers can only utilize glycerol as
45
substrate to produce 1,3-PDO, mainly by two consecutive enzymatic reactions: (1)
46
dehydration of glycerol to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (3-HPA) by glycerol dehydratase;
47
and (2) reduction of 3-HPA to 1,3-PDO by 1,3-PDO dehydrogenase.2 Dupont and
48
Genencor has previously constructed a recombinant Escherichia coli to directly convert
49
glucose into 1,3-PDO via the combination of a glycerol synthesis module from
50
Saccharomyces cerevisiae and a 1,3-PDO synthesis module from Klebsiella
51
pneumoniae.1,5 Although the engineered strain can produce 1,3-PDO with high titer and
52
yield, the necessity to add expensive vitamin B12 during fermentation significantly
53
increase the whole production cost. Most of the commonly used industrial chassis, such
54
as E. coli, S. cerevisiae, and Corynebacterium glutamicum, cannot synthesize
55
coenzyme B12, an important cofactor of glycerol dehydratase. Construction of
56
heterologous vitamin B12 synthesis pathways in these organisms is highly challenging
57
due to the high complexity of B12 synthesis pathways encoded by more than 25 genes.6
58
Although a B12-independent glycerol dehydratase was discovered in 2003, this enzyme
59
is highly sensitive to oxygen and direct utilization of this enzyme for 1,3-PDO
60
production from glucose has not been demonstrated so far.7 3
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
61
A glycerol-independent route to produce 1,3-PDO from sugars was recently proposed
62
by our group and two filed patents.8,9,10 This non-natural metabolic pathway converts
63
the natural metabolic precursor homoserine into 1,3-PDO via three consecutive
64
reactions: (1) deamination of homoserine to 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate; (2)
65
decarboxylation of 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate to 3-HPA; (3) reduction of 3-HPA to 1,3-
66
PDO (Figure 1). This metabolic pathway has the same theoretical yield as the glycerol-
67
dependent pathway but does not require complicated cofactor like coenzyme B12. High
68
production of homoserine has been demonstrated in different chassis like E. coli and C.
69
glutamicum.11 Thus, this metabolic pathway can be easily introduced into these chassis
70
for 1,3-PDO overproduction. However, the main challenge for constructing this non-
71
natural pathway is the lack of natural enzymes to efficiently catalyze the deamination
72
of homoserine and the decarboxylation of 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate. We have
73
previously engineered a glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) mutant (K92V/T195S) to
74
catalyze the oxidative deamination of aspartate, enabling an accumulation of 51.5 mg/L
75
1,3-PDO from glucose and homoserine by a recombinant E. coli.8 The titer, however,
76
is still too low for practical application.
77
In this study, we combine enzyme screening, protein engineering, and combinatorial
78
pathway engineering to increase the efficiency of the synthetic pathway to further
79
increase the production of 1,3-PDO. Together with the improvement of homoserine
80
supply, an engineered E. coli strain with an optimal combination of aspartate
81
transaminase (aspC) from E. coli, pyruvate decarboxylase (pdc) from Zymomonas
82
mobilis, and alcohol dehydrogenase yqhD from E. coli can produce the highest amount 4
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 4 of 29
Page 5 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
83
of 1,3-PDO from glucose in shake flask cultivation. The titer of 1,3-PDO was further
84
increased by engineering the specificity of pyruvate decarboxylase and constructing a
85
fusion protein between aspartate transaminase and pyruvate decarboxylase to provide a
86
potential metabolic channeling for 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate.
87
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
88
Selection of enzymes for the decarboxylation of 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate
89
The non-natural 1,3-PDO synthesis pathway is comprised of three enzymatic reactions
90
(Figure 1). Reduction of 3-HPA to 1,3-PDO can be efficiently catalyzed by the non-
91
specific alcohol dehydrogenase (yqhD) from E. coli.8 However, no natural enzymes
92
have been previously reported to efficiently catalyze the decarboxylation of 4-hydroxy-
93
2-ketobutyrate. In this study, we first screened the activity for 4-hydroxy-2-
94
ketobutyrate decarboxylation from α-keto acid decarboxylase superfamily (E.C. 4.1.1-).
95
Several decarboxylases shown broad substrate specificity were evaluated, including
96
pyruvate decarboxylase from Zymomonas mobilis (pdc),12 α-ketoisovalerate
97
decarboxylase from Lactococcus lactis (kivd),13 benzoylformate decarboxylase from
98
Pseudomonas putida (mdlC).14 Since no commercial 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate was
99
available, we evaluated the efficiency of these decarboxylases based on in vivo 1,3-
100
PDO production from homoserine. In our previous study, we have constructed a mutant
101
glutamate dehydrogenase (gdhK92V/T195S) which can catalyze the oxidative deamination
102
of homoserine to 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate.8 We synthesized all of the selected
103
decarboxylases with optimized codons and co-expressed them with gdhK92V/T195S and 5
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
104
yqhD under tac promoter in plasmid pXMJ19 (Figure 2A). All of the constructed
105
plasmids were transformed into E. coli strain W02, a quadruple E. coli mutant (ΔldhA
106
ΔadhE ΔthrB ΔmetA) blocking the pathways for lactate and ethanol synthesis and
107
homoserine consumption. When cultured in M9Y medium with the addition of 5 g/L
108
homoserine, all of the constructed recombinants can produce 1,3-PDO (Figure 2B).
109
Strain W04 harboring pdc produced the highest amount of 1,3-PDO (~ 0.31 g/L) while
110
strain W05 and W06 accumulated < 0.1 g/L 1,3-PDO. Strain W04 also accumulated ~
111
5.4 g/L ethanol and a marginal amount of acetate. Contrarily, strain W05 and W06
112
accumulated > 5 g/L acetate with < 1.5 g/L ethanol. Since adhE gene has been knocked
113
out in strain W02, ethanol production by strain W04, W05, and W06 should be
114
attributed to the decarboxylation of pyruvate by the promiscuous activities of the
115
introduced α-keto acid decarboxylases. Since pyruvate decarboxylase (pdc) was shown
116
to be the most efficient enzyme for decarboxylation of 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate under
117
the testing condition, it was selected for further study.
118
Selection of enzymes for the deamination of homoserine
119
Although glutamate dehydrogenase (gdhK92V/T195S) can catalyze the oxidative
120
deamination of homoserine, the catalytic efficiency of this enzyme for homoserine is
121
very poor (Km > 1.0 M),8,31 which significantly limits the efficiency of the engineered
122
pathway. A more efficient enzyme for the deamination of homoserine is highly
123
demanded. In nature, three different enzyme families can transfer amino acid into the
124
corresponding α-keto acid, namely: (1) amino acid dehydrogenase; (2) amino acid 6
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 6 of 29
Page 7 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
125
transaminase (aminotransferases); (3) amino acid deaminase (oxidase). Thus, different
126
proteins from these enzyme families were co-expressed with pdc and yqhD under tac
127
promoter in plasmid pXMJ19 (Figure 3A). The constructed plasmids were transformed
128
into E. coli strain W02 and the recombinant strains were cultured in M9Y medium with
129
the addition of 5 g/L homoserine.
130
Amino acid dehydrogenases catalyze the NAD(P)-dependent reversible deamination of
131
L-amino acids into α-keto acids. Different from glutamate dehydrogenase that is highly
132
specific to glutamate, valine dehydrogenase and leucine dehydrogenase of the ELFV
133
dehydrogenase family are able to use a broad scope of substrates.15, 16, 17 We synthesized
134
valine dehydrogenase from Streptomyces cinnamonensis (vdh)
135
dehydrogenase from Geobacillus stearothermophilus (ldh) 17 and tested their activities
136
toward oxidative deamination of homoserine. Both of the purified valine
137
dehydrogenase and leucine dehydrogenase can use homoserine as a substrate with Km
138
value of 30.8 mM and 44.7 mM and Vmax value of 2.7 μmol/min/mg protein and 1.3
139
μmol/min/mg protein at optimum pH 11. However, the activities were significantly
140
reduced (~ 0.072 μmol/min/mg protein for VDH and ~ 0.054 μmol/min/mg protein for
141
LDH) at pH 7. When cultured in M9Y medium with the addition of 5 g/L homoserine,
142
strain W07 harboring ldh and strain W08 harboring vdh accumulated 0.35 g/L and 0.57
143
g/L 1,3-PDO, indicating that both ldh and vdh are more efficient than gdhK92V/T195S (0.31
144
g/L 1,3-PDO for strain W04 harboring gdhK92V/T195S) (Figure 3B).
7
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
16
and leucine
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
145
Amino acid transaminases catalyze the reversible transamination between an amino
146
acid and an α-keto acid. Several amino acid transaminases with broad substrate
147
spectrum were tested in this study, including an aspartate transaminase from E. coli
148
(aspC),18 a branched-chain amino acid transaminase from E. coli (ilvE),18 a mutated
149
alanine transaminase from E. coli (alaCA142P/Y275D),19 an omega-transaminase from
150
Vibrio fluvialis (TA51),20 and a serine-pyruvate aminotransferase gene from Mus
151
musculus (Agxt).21 When cultured in M9Y medium with the addition of 5 g/L
152
homoserine, strain W09 harboring aspC, strain W10 harboring ivlE, and strain W12
153
harboring TA51 produced higher amount of 1,3-PDO than strain W04 harboring
154
gdhK92V/T195S (0.56 g/L, 0.39 g/L, and 0.69 g/L vs 0.31 g/L) (Figure 3C).
155
Amino acid deaminases/oxidases (LAAO) are flavoenzymes catalyzing the irreversible
156
deamination of an amino acid to the corresponding α-keto acids. Three LAAOs with
157
broad substrate spectrum were tested in this study, namely L-amino acid oxidase from
158
Rhodococcus opacus (RoAo),22 L-amino acid oxidase from Proteus vulgaris (PvAo),23
159
L-amino acid oxidase from Proteus mirabilis (PmAo).24 When cultured in M9Y
160
medium with the addition of 5 g/L homoserine, strain W14 harboring RoAo, strain W15
161
harboring PvAo, and strain W16 harboring PmAo produced 0.17 g/L, 0.26 g/L, and 0.20
162
g/L 1,3-PDO (Figure 3D). Expression of catalase from Geobacillus sp. in these strains
163
to catalyze the dismutation of H2O2 during amino acid oxidation did not further improve
164
1,3-PDO production (data not shown). Thus, LAAOs are not efficient for 1,3-PDO
165
production as compared to glutamate dehydrogenase (gdhK92V/T195S).
8
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 8 of 29
Page 9 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
166
Construction of strains for the direct production of 1,3-PDO from glucose
167
All of the previously constructed strains produced 1,3-PDO in M9Y medium with the
168
additionally supplemented homoserine. To directly produce 1,3-PDO from glucose, we
169
overexpressed
170
dehydrogenase gene thrAG433R from E. coli and an aspartate-insensitive pyruvate
171
carboxylase from C. glutamicum (pycP458S) in plasmid pACYC 184. Plasmid pACYC-
172
thrAG433R-pycP458S was transformed into E. coli strain W02, giving strain W03. Strain
173
W03 accumulated a significantly higher amount of homoserine than strain W02 (1.34
174
g/L vs 0.34 g/L homoserine). Five plasmids allowing high accumulation of 1,3-PDO in
175
strain W02 were transformed into strain W03, resulting in strain W17 (pXMJ-
176
gdhK92V/T195S-pdc-yqhD), W18 (pXMJ-vdh-pdc-yqhD), W19 (pXMJ-aspC-pdc-yqhD),
177
W20 (pXMJ- ilvE-pdc-yqhD), and W21 (pXMJ-TA51-pdc-yqhD).
178
The five strains were cultivated in M9Y medium without additionally supplemented
179
homoserine. All of the five strains produced lower amounts of 1,3-PDO than the
180
corresponding W02-derived strains cultivated in M9Y medium with 5 g/L homoserine
181
(Figure 4). This is probably due to that all of the used amino acid dehydrogenases or
182
amino acid transaminases showed high Km value for homoserine ( >30 mM or 3.57
183
g/L) while all of the W03-derived strains accumulated a relatively low amount of
184
homoserine (< 1 g/L). Among all of the tested strains, strain W19 overexpressing aspC,
185
pdc and yqhD accumulated the highest amount of 1,3-PDO (0.32 g/L) when cultivated
a
threonine-insensitive
bifunctional
9
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
aspartokinase/homoserine
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
186
in M9Y medium without the additionally supplemented homoserine. This strain was
187
selected for further optimization.
188
Protein engineering of pyruvate decarboxylase to increase 1,3-PDO production
189
Although strain W19 can accumulate 0.32 g/L 1,3-PDO using glucose as the sole
190
carbon source, it also accumulated a high amount of ethanol (4.9 g/L). High activity of
191
pyruvate decarboxylase toward pyruvate decarboxylation would significantly redirect
192
metabolic flux toward ethanol production, reducing the yield of homoserine and 1,3-
193
PDO. Thus, it is necessary to enhance the specific activity of pyruvate decarboxylase
194
toward 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate decarboxylation by protein engineering. Two
195
residues, I472 and I476, which located in the substrate’s binding center of pyruvate
196
decarboxylase, have been previously identified to be involved in the binding of
197
pyruvate (Figure 5A).12 Multiple sequence analysis show that these two residues are
198
highly conserved within pyruvate decarboxylases family. In benzoylformate
199
decarboxylase, these two residues are mutated to Ala and Phe, allowing the binding of
200
large substrates like aromatic α-keto acids.12 Thus, three mutated pyruvate
201
decarboxylases, pdcI472A, pdcI476F, and pdcI472A/I476F, were constructed in this study.
202
Compared to the wildtype, the activity toward pyruvate decarboxylation was reduced
203
by 58.3%, 84.2%, and 98.3% for pdcI472A, pdcI476F and pdcI472A /I476F, respectively.12
204
Consequently, when cultured in M9Y medium, ethanol production by strain W22
205
harboring pdcI472A, strain W23 harboring pdcI476F, strain W24 harboring pdcI472A /I476F
206
was reduced by 46.9%, 55.4%, and 84.9% (Figure 5). 1,3-PDO production and 10
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 10 of 29
Page 11 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
207
homoserine accumulation by strain W22 was increased by 52.8% (0.49 g/L vs 0.32 g/L)
208
and 32.9% (0.93 g/L vs 0.70 g/L) compared to strain W19. However, 1,3-PDO
209
production by strain W23 and strain W24 was significantly reduced compared to strain
210
W19, indicating that introduction I476F mutation also significantly reduce the activity
211
of pyruvate decarboxylase toward 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate decarboxylation.
212
Construction of fusion protein to increase 1,3-PDO production
213
To further increase the efficiency of the synthetic pathway, we tried to construct fusion
214
proteins between aspartate transaminase and pyruvate decarboxylase. Construction of
215
fusion protein is a powerful strategy to enhance pathway efficiency by promoting the
216
transfer of intermediates between pathway enzymes.25 Specifically, the fusion of
217
aspartate transaminase (aspC) and pyruvate decarboxylase (pdc) may prevent the
218
diffusion of 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate, increasing the efficiency of the subsequent
219
decarboxylation reaction and reducing the formation of ethanol. A flexible linker
220
(GGGGS)3 was inserted between the C-terminal of aspC and the N-terminal of pdc or
221
pdcI472A, giving strain W25 (aspC-linker-pdc) and W26 (aspC-linker-pdcI472A). When
222
cultivated in M9Y medium, strain W25 produced a 1.97-fold higher amount of 1,3-
223
PDO than strain W19 (0.63g/L vs 0.32 g/L), indicating that fusion of aspartate
224
transaminase and pyruvate decarboxylase could significantly promote 1,3-PDO
225
production (Figure 6). However, the fusion of aspartate transaminase and the mutated
226
pyruvate decarboxylase (I472A) did not further promote 1,3-PDO production probably
227
due to the reduced solubility of the fusion protein which resulted in the lower activity 11
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
228
of aspC and the higher accumulation of homoserine (Figure 6). Changing the length of
229
the linker did not further increase the production of 1,3-PDO.
230
CONCLUSION
231
In this study, a homoserine-derived non-natural pathway for 1,3-PDO production was
232
optimized by combining enzyme screening, protein engineering, and pathway
233
engineering. Especially, aspartate transaminase (aspC) from E. coli and pyruvate
234
decarboxylase (pdc) from Z. mobilis were selected as the most promising combination
235
for the engineered artificial pathway. Aspartate transaminase and several other selected
236
enzymes in this study showed improved kinetics for homoserine deamination compared
237
to the previously engineered glutamate dehydrogenase (Km of homoserine ~ 72 mM
238
for aspC vs > 1.0 M for gdhK92V/T195S).12,31 However, all of these natural enzymes
239
including the wildtype pyruvate decarboxylase show broad substrate spectrum and
240
prefer to use their native substrates, resulting in the accumulation of large amounts of
241
byproducts. Reduce the activity of pyruvate decarboxylase towards pyruvate
242
decarboxylation in this study was shown to be efficient to reduce the accumulation of
243
ethanol and to partially increase the production of 1,3-PDO. Fusion of aspartate
244
transaminase and pyruvate decarboxylase to provide metabolic channeling of 4-
245
hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate also significantly increased the production of 1,3-PDO. The
246
best engineered E. coli strain can produce 0.63 g/L 1,3-PDO from glucose without
247
adding vitamin B12, which is about 10-fold higher than the previously engineered
248
strain.8 The present study lays the basis for developing an efficient biological process 12
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 12 of 29
Page 13 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
249
for 1,3-PDO production from sugars. Further optimization of aspC and pdc by protein
250
engineering to increase the specificity of the enzymes toward homoserine
251
transamination and 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate decarboxylation is necessary for
252
increasing 1,3-PDO production and reducing the accumulation of other byproducts.26
253
Increasing the precursor (homoserine) availability can also be used to promote the
254
accumulation of 1.3-PDO. Similar pathways and metabolic engineering strategies can
255
be implemented for the production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid by changing alcohol
256
dehydrogenase to aldehyde dehydrogenase or ethylene glycol by changing the
257
precursor from homoserine to serine.27,14
258
METHODS
259
Strains and plasmids
260
Strains used in this study are listed in Table 1 and plasmids used are listed in
261
Supplemental Table 1. All strains used in this study were derived from E. coli K-12
262
strain W3110. The in-frame deletions of ldhA, adhE, thrB, and metA genes were
263
obtained by CRISPR–Cas9 mediated genome editing as described by Li et al.28
264
Construction of artificial 1,3-PDO synthesis pathways were based on an expression
265
vector pXMJ19.27 Low-copy plasmid pACYC184 was used as backbone for
266
overexpressing mutated thrA gene (G433R) from E. coli and pyc gene (P458S) from
267
Corynebacterium glutamicum. Gibson assembly cloning kit (NEB) was used to
268
construct all of the plasmids.29
269
Plasmid construction 13
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
270
To construct plasmid pACYC-thrAG433R-pycP458S, the mutated thrA gene (G433R) with
271
its native promoter was amplified from a classical threonine hyperproducer E. coli
272
ATCC 21277 and the mutated pyc gene (P458S) was amplified from C. glutamicum
273
AC 256. The two fragments were inserted into the NcoI/EcoRI sites of pACYC184 by
274
the standard protocol of Gibson assembly.
275
Plasmid pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-pdc-yqhD was constructed by PCR-amplifying a DNA
276
fragment containing gdhAK92V/T195S-pdc-yqhD operon from pZA-gdhAK92V/T195S-pdc-
277
yqhD.8 The DNA fragment was inserted into the XbaI/EcoRI sites of pXMJ19 by
278
Gibson assembly. Plasmids pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-kivd-yqhD and pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-
279
mdlC-yqhD were obtained by replacing the pdc gene in pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-pdc-yqhD
280
by the codon-optimized kivd gene from Lactococcus lactis and the mdlC gene from
281
Pseudomonas putida by Gibson assembly. The codon-optimized kivd gene and mdlC
282
gene were amplified from plasmids pEC-P1-LlKivD-yqhD and pEC-P1-PpMdlc-
283
yqhD.14
284
Plasmids pXMJ-vdh-pdc-yqhD and pXMJ-ldh-pdc-yqhD were obtained by replacing
285
the gdhK92V/T195S gene in pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-pdc-yqhD by the codon-optimized vdh
286
gene from Streptomyces cinnamonensis and the ldh gene from Geobacillus
287
stearothermophilus by Gibson assembly. The codon-optimized vdh gene and ldh gene
288
were amplified from plasmids pEC-P1-ScVdh-PpMdlc-yqhD and pEC-P1-GsLdh-
289
PpMdlc-yqhD.14 Plasmids pXMJ-aspC-pdc-yqhD, pXMJ-ilvE-pdc-yqhD, pXMJ-
290
alaCA142P/Y275D-pdc-yqhD, pXMJ-TA51-pdc-yqhD, and pXMJ-Agxt-pdc-yqhD were 14
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 14 of 29
Page 15 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
291
obtained by replacing the gdhK92V/T195S gene in pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-pdc-yqhD by the
292
aspC gene and ilvE gene from E. coli, the mutated alaC gene (A142P/Y275D) from E.
293
coli, the codon-optimized omega-transaminase gene from Vibrio fluvialis (TA51,
294
Uniprot No. F2XBU9) and the serine-pyruvate aminotransferase gene from Mus
295
musculus (Agxt, Uniprot No. O35423) by Gibson assembly. AspC gene and ilvE gene
296
were amplified from E. coli W3110. The mutated alaC gene (A142P/Y275D)
297
(Supplemental Sequence 1), codon-optimized TA51 gene (Supplemental Sequence 2)
298
and Agxt gene (Supplemental Sequence 3) were synthesized by Qinglan Biotech (WuXi)
299
co., Ltd.
300
Plasmids pXMJ-RoAo-pdc-yqhD, pXMJ-PvAo-pdc-yqhD, and pXMJ-PmAo-pdc-
301
yqhD were obtained by replacing the gdhK92V/T195S gene in pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-pdc-
302
yqhD by the codon-optimized L-amino oxidase gene from Rhodococcus opacus (RoAo,
303
Uniprot No. Q8VPD4), L-amino oxidase gene from Proteus vulgaris (PvAo, Uniprot
304
No. Q9LCB2), L-amino oxidase gene from Proteus mirabilis (PmAo, Uniprot No.
305
B2ZHY0) by Gibson assembly. The codon-optimized RoAo (Supplemental Sequence
306
4), PvAo (Supplemental Sequence 5), and PmAo (Supplemental Sequence 6) genes
307
were synthesized by Qinglan Biotech (WuXi) co., Ltd.
308
Plasmids pXMJ-aspC-pdcI472A-yqhD, pXMJ-aspC-pdcI476F-yqhD, and pXMJ-aspC-
309
pdcI472A/I476F-yqhD were obtained by site-directed mutagenesis based on pXMJ-aspC-
310
pdc-yqhD using Gibson assembly kit (NEB). Plasmids pXMJ-aspC-linker-pdc-yqhD
311
and pXMJ-aspC-linker-pdcI472A-yqhD were obtained with the deletion of the stop codon 15
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
aspC
gene
and
insertion
of
the
Page 16 of 29
linker
sequence
(5
′
312
of
-
313
GGTGGTGGTGGTAGTGGTGGCGGTGGTTCAGGCGGTGGTGGTTCC-3
314
between aspC gene and pdc gene by site-directed mutagenesis using pXMJ-aspC-pdc-
315
yqhD and pXMJ-aspC-pdcI472A-yqhD as template. To construct plasmids for protein
316
overexpression and characterization in E. coli BL21 (DE3), all gene fragments were
317
cloned into pET-28a between restriction sites EcoRI and SalI in frame with the N-
318
terminal his-tag. The detailed method used to construct plasmids is described in the
319
Supporting Information.
320
Table 2.
321
Protein expression and enzyme assay
322
E. coli BL21 (DE3) harboring pET-28a derived plasmids were grown in LB medium
323
with 50 μg/ml Kanamycin at 37 ℃ until OD600 reached 0.6 and gene expression was
324
induced at 20 ℃ for an additional 12–14 h by adding 0.1 mM isopropyl β-D-
325
thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). Protein purification was conducted by using Ni2+-NTA
326
column (GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences, Piscat-away, NJ) following the manufacturer's
327
instructions. The purity of the enzymes was checked by SDS-PAGE and protein
328
concentrations were quantified via the Bradford assay. The purified enzymes were then
329
used for enzyme characterization.
330
The activities of amino acid dehydrogenases were assayed by the method described by
331
Wu et al. (2018).15 The activities of amino acid transaminases were assayed by the
′ )
The primers used in this study are listed in Supplemental
16
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 17 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
332
method described by Walther et al.(2018).18 The activities of pyruvate decarboxylase
333
and its mutants were assayed by the method described by Siegert et al. (2005).12
334
Culture condition and analytical method
335
The modified M9Y medium was used for 1,3-PDO production by E. coli W03-derived
336
strains, consisting of (per liter): 20 g glucose, 12.8 g Na2HPO4·7H2O, 0.5 g NaCl, 3 g
337
KH2PO4, 1 g NH4Cl, 0.25 g MgSO4·7H2O, 14.7 mg CaCl2·2H2O, 2.78 mg FeSO4·7H2O,
338
10 mg thiamine hydrochloride, 0.5 g threonine, 0.5 g methionine, and 5 g yeast extract.
339
M9Y medium supplemented with 5 g/L homoserine was used for 1,3-PDO production
340
by E. coli W02-derived strains. When needed, the medium was supplemented with 50
341
μg/ml chloramphenicol and/or 10 μg/ml tetracycline. Shake-flask fermentation was
342
performed in 500 ml flasks containing 50 ml M9Y minimal medium. Main cultures
343
were inoculated at an initial OD600 of 0.2 from overnight pre-cultures in LB medium.
344
The cell was grown at 30°C and 200 rpm agitation. Expression of 1,3-PDO synthesis
345
pathway was induced by the addition of 1 mM isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside
346
(IPTG) when OD600 reached approximately 0.6.
347
Quantification of glucose, 1,3-PDO and other organic acids were carried out by using
348
High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a Aminex HPX-87H
349
Column (300×7.8 mm) using 5 mM H2SO4 as the mobile phase with a flow rate of 0.6
350
mL/min, and detection via refractive index or UV absorption at 210 nm.30 The
351
extracellular amino acids were quantified by HPLC after derivatizing with 6-
17
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
carbamate.30
Page 18 of 29
352
Aminoquinolyl-N-Hydroxysuccinimidyl
353
determined at an optical density of 600 nm.
354
ASSOCIATED CONTENTS
355
Supporting information
356
Detailed methods of plasmids construction, plasmids used in this study, custom DNA
357
oligonucleotide primers, and sequences of the synthetic genes.
358
AUTHOR INFORMATION
359
Corresponding author
360
*Tel: +86-10-62772130; E-mail:
[email protected] 361
Author contributions
362
Z.C., W.Z., and D.L. proposed the idea and designed the experiments. W.Z., Y.Z., and
363
W.W. performed the experiments. Z.C. and W.Z. wrote the paper. All authors read and
364
approved the final manuscript.
365
Notes
366
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
367
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
368
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
369
Nos. 21878172 and 21676156), the Suzhou-Tsinghua Innovation leading Project (Grant 18
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Cell
concentration
was
Page 19 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
370
No. 20171470060), the DongGuan Innovative Research Team Program ( No.
371
201536000100033 ) , and the Tsinghua University’s Initiative Scientific Research
372
Program (Grant No. 20151080362).
373
REFERENCES
374
(1) Nakamura, C.E., and Whited, G.M., (2003) Metabolic engineering for the microbial production of 1,3-propanediol. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 14, 454–459.
375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394
(2) Zhang, Y., Chen, Z., and Liu, D. (2017) Production of C2–C4 diols from renewable bioresources: new metabolic pathways and metabolic engineering strategies. Biotechnol. Biofuels 10, 299. (3) Saxena, R.K., Anand, P., Saran, S., and Isar, J. (2009) Microbial production of 1,3propanediol: recent developments and emerging opportunities. Biotechnol. Adv. 27, 895–913. (4) Xin, B., Tao, F., Wang, Y., Liu, H., M,a C., and Xu, P. (2017) Coordination of metabolic pathways: enhanced carbon conservation in 1,3-propanediol production by coupling with optically pure lactate biosynthesis. Metab. Eng. 41, 102–114. (5) Antoniewicz, M.R., Kraynie, D.F., Laffend, L.A., González-Lergier, J., Kelleher, J.K., and Stephanopoulos, G. (2007) Metabolic flux analysis in a nonstationary system: fed-batch fermentation of a high yielding strain of E. coli producing 1,3propanediol. Metab. Eng. 9, 277–292. (6) Fang, H., Li, D., Kang, J., Jiang, P., Sun, J., and Zhang, D. (2018) Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for de novo biosynthesis of vitamin B12. Nat. Commun. 9, 4917. (7) Raynaud, C., Sarçabal, P., Meynial-Salles, I., Croux, C., and Soucaille, P. (2003) Molecular characterization of the 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) operon of Clostridium butyricum. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 100, 5010-5015.
397
(8) Chen, Z., Geng, F., and Zeng, A.P. (2015) Protein design and engineering of a de novo pathway for microbial production of 1,3-propanediol from glucose. Biotechnol. J. 10, 284-289.
398
(9) Boisart, C. (2013) Method for the preparation of 1,3-propanediol. EP2540834 A1.
395 396
19
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432
(10) Xu, J., Saunders, C.W., Green, P.R., and Velasquez, J.E. (2013) Microorganisms and methods for producing acrylate and other products from homoserine. WO/2013/052717 A2. (11) Li, H., Wang, B.S., Zhu, L.H., Cheng, S., Li, Y.R., Zhang, L., Ding, Z.Y., Gu, Z.H., and Shi, G.Y. (2016) Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli W3110 for L-homoserine production. Process Biochem. 51, 1973-1983. (12) Siegert, P., McLeish, M.J., Baumann, M., Iding, H., Kneen, M.M., Kenyon, G.L., and Pohl, M.(2005) Exchanging the substrate specificities of pyruvate decarboxylase from Zymomonas mobilis and benzoylformate decarboxylase from Pseudomonas putida. Protein Eng. Des. Sel. 18, 345-357. (13) De la Plaza, M., Fernández de Palencia, P., Peláez, C., and Requena, T. (2004) Biochemical and molecular characterization of alpha-ketoisovalerate decarboxylase, an enzyme involved in the formation of aldehydes from amino acids by Lactococcus lactis. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 238, 367–374. (14) Chen, Z., Huang, J., Wu, Y., and Liu, D. (2016) Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the de novo production of ethylene glycol from glucose. Metab. Eng. 33, 12–18. (15) Wu, W., Zhang, Y., Huang, J., Wu, Y., Liu, D., and Chen, Z. (2018) Discovery of a potentially new subfamily of ELFV dehydrogenases effective for L-arginine deamination by enzyme mining. Biotechnol. J. 13, 1700305. (16) Turnbull, A.P., Baker, P.J., and Rice, D.W. (1997) Analysis of the quaternary structure, substrate specificity, and catalytic mechanism of valine dehydrogenase. J. Biol. Chem. 272, 25105–25111. (17) Kataoka, K. and Tanizawa, K. (2003) Alteration of substrate specificity of leucine dehydrogenase by site-directed mutagenesis. J. Mol. Catal. B Enzym. 23, 299–309. (18) Walther T, Calvayrac F, Malbert Y, Alkim C, Dressaire C, Cordier H, and François JM. (2018) Construction of a synthetic metabolic pathway for the production of 2,4-dihydroxybutyric acid from homoserine. Metab. Eng. 45, 237-245. (19) Bouzon, M., Perret, A., Loreau, O., Delmas, V., Perchat, N., Weissenbach, J., Taran, F., and Marlière, P. (2017) A synthetic alternative to canonical one-carbon metabolism. ACS Synth. Biol. 6, 1520-1533. (20) Hernandez, K., Bujons, J., Joglar, J., Charnock, S.J., de María, P.D., Fessner, W.D., and Clapés P. (2017) Combining aldolases and transaminases for the synthesis of 2-amino-4-hydroxybutanoic acid. ACS Catal. 7, 1707-1711. 20
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 20 of 29
Page 21 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465
ACS Synthetic Biology
(21) Li, X.M., Salido, E.C., Shapiro, LJ. (1999) The mouse alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase gene (Agxt1): cloning, expression, and mapping to chromosome 1. Somat. Cell Mol. Genet. 25, 67-77. (22) Geueke, B., and Hummel, W. (2002) A new bacterial L-amino acid oxidase with a broad substrate specificity: purification and characterization. Enzyme Microb. Technol. 31, 77-87. (23) Takahashi, E., Ito, K., and Yoshimoto, T. (1999) Cloning of L-amino acid deaminase gene from Proteus vulgaris. Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 63, 22442247. (24) Baek, J.O., Seo, J.W., Kwon, O., Seong, S.I., Kim, I.H., and Kim, C.H. (2011) Expression and characterization of a second L-amino acid deaminase isolated from Proteus mirabilis in Escherichia coli. J. Basic Microbiol. 51, 129-135. (25) Fujiwara, R., Noda, S., Tanaka, T., and Kondo, A. (2018) Muconic acid production using gene-level fusion proteins in Escherichia coli. ACS Synth. Biol. 7, 26982705. (26) Chen, Z., and Zeng, A.-P. (2016). Protein engineering approaches to chemical biotechnology. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 42, 198–205. (27) Chen, Z., Huang, J., Wu, Y., Wu, W., Zhang, Y., and Liu, D. (2017) Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the production of 3hydroxypropionic acid from glucose and xylose. Metab. Eng. 39, 151–158. (28) Li, Y., Lin, Z., Huang, C., Zhang, Y., Wang, Z., Tang, Y.J., Chen, T., and Zhao, X. (2015) Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli using CRISPR-Cas9 meditated genome editing. Metab. Eng. 31, 13-21. (29) Gibson, D.G., Young, L., Chuang, R.-Y., Venter, J.C., Hutchison, C. a, and Smith, H.O. (2009) Enzymatic assembly of DNA molecules up to several hundred kilobases. Nat. Methods 6, 343–345. (30) Chen, Z., Bommareddy, R.R., Frank, D., Rappert, S., and Zeng, A.-P. (2014) Deregulation of feedback inhibition of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase for improved lysine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 80, 1388–1393. (31) Chen, Z., Geng, F., and Zeng, A.P. (2016) Erratum: Protein design and engineering of a de novo pathway for microbial production of 1,3-propanediol from glucose. Biotechnol. J. 11, 1368-1368.
466 21
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
467
Page 22 of 29
Table 1. Strains used for this study Strain or plasmid
Description
Reference
Strains W3110
Wildtype
W02
W3110 ΔldhA ΔadhE ΔthrB ΔmetA
W03
ATCC 27325 This study
W02 harboring
pACYC-thrAG433R-pycP458S
This study
W02 harboring
pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-pdc-yqhD
This study
W05
W02 harboring
pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-kivd-yqhD
This study
W06
W02 harboring pXMJ-gdhK92V/T195S-mdlc-yqhD
This study
W07
W02 harboring pXMJ-ldh-pdc-yqhD
This study
W08
W02 harboring pXMJ-vdh-pdc-yqhD
This study
W09
W02 harboring pXMJ-aspC-pdc-yqhD
This study
W10
W02 harboring pXMJ-ilvE-pdc-yqhD
This study
W04
pXMJ-alaCA142P/Y275D-pdc-yqhD
W11
W02 harboring
W12
W02 harboring pXMJ-TA51-pdc-yqhD
This study
W13
W02 harboring pXMJ-Agxt-pdc-yqhD
This study
W14
W02 harboring pXMJ-RoAo-pdc-yqhD
This study
W15
W02 harboring pXMJ-PvAo-pdc-yqhD
This study
W16
W02 harboring pXMJ-PmAo-pdc-yqhD
This study
W17
W03 harboring pXMJ-
W18
W03 harboring pXMJ-vdh-pdc-yqhD
This study
W19
W03 harboring pXMJ-aspC-pdc-yqhD
This study
W20
W03 harboring pXMJ-ilvE-pdc-yqhD
This study
W21
W03 harboring pXMJ-TA51-pdc-yqhD
This study
W22
W03 harboring pXMJ-aspC-pdcI472A-yqhD
This study
W23
W03 harboring pXMJ-aspC-pdcI476F-yqhD
This study
W24
W03 harboring pXMJ-aspC-pdcI472A/I476F-yqhD
This study
W25
W03 harboring pXMJ-aspC-linker-pdc-yqhD
This study
W26
W03 harboring
gdhK92V/T195S-pdc-yqhD
This study
pXMJ-aspC-linker-pdcI472A-yqhD
468
469
470
471
472 22
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
This study
This study
Page 23 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
473
ACS Synthetic Biology
FIGURES
474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486
Figure 1. Synthetic metabolic pathway for the production of 1, 3-propanediol from homoserine in E. coli. A synthetic module was constructed for the conversion of homoserine to 1, 3-propanediol: (1) deamination of homoserine to 4-hydroxy-2ketobutyrate by amino acid dehydrogenase/transaminase/oxidase; (2) decarboxylation of 4-hydroxy-2-ketobutyrate to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde by αketo acid decarboxylase; (3) reduction of 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde to 1,3propanediol by alcohol dehydrogenase (yqhD). A feedback-insensitive pyruvate carboxylase from C. glutamicum (pycP458S) and a bifunctional aspartokinase/homoserine dehydrogenase (thrAG433R) from E. coli were overexpressed to increase the availability of homoserine for the synthetic pathway. The red X indicates deletion of the ldhA, adhE, thrB, and metA genes to reduce byproduct formation. 23
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
487 488
Figure 2. Screening of α-keto acid decarboxylases for 1,3-PDO production. (A)
489
Composition of pathway enzymes constructed in plasmid pXMJ19; (B) 1,3-PDO
490
production; (C) Ethanol accumulation; (D) Acetate accumulation. The cells were
491
cultured in shake flasks with M9Y minimal medium with the addition of 5 g/L
492
homoserine. Data were taken from 72 h of cultivation.
493
24
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 24 of 29
Page 25 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
494 495
Figure 3. Screening of enzymes for the deamination of homoserine for 1,3-PDO
496
production. (A) Composition of pathway enzymes constructed in plasmid pXMJ19;
497
(B) 1,3-PDO production with different amino acid dehydrogenases; (C) 1,3-PDO
498
production with different amino acid transaminases; (D) 1,3-PDO production with
499
different amino acid oxidases. The cells were cultured in shake flasks with M9Y
500
minimal medium with the addition of 5 g/L homoserine. Data were taken from 72
501
h of cultivation.
502 503 504 505 506 25
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
507 508 509 510 511 512
Figure 4. Fermentation profiles of selected strains. (A) Composition of pathway enzymes constructed in plasmid pXMJ19 and plasmid pACYC184; (B) 1,3-PDO production; (C) L-homoserine accumulation; (D) Ethanol accumulation; (E) Acetate accumulation. The cells were cultured in shake flasks with M9Y minimal medium. Data were taken from 72 h of cultivation.
513
26
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 26 of 29
Page 27 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
ACS Synthetic Biology
514 515 516 517 518 519
Figure 5. Fermentation profiles of mutants with point mutation of pyruvate decarboxylase. (A) The active site of pyruvate decarboxylase (PDB 5TMA); (B) 1,3-PDO production; (C) L-homoserine accumulation; (D) Ethanol accumulation; (E) Acetate accumulation. The cells were cultured in shake flasks with M9Y minimal medium. Data were taken from 72 h of cultivation.
520 521
27
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
ACS Synthetic Biology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
522 523 524 525 526 527 528
Figure 6. Fermentation profiles of mutants with linker between aspartate transaminase and pyruvate decarboxylase. (A) Composition of pathway enzymes constructed in plasmid pXMJ19 and plasmid pACYC184; (B) 1,3-PDO production; (C) L-homoserine accumulation; (D) Ethanol accumulation; (E) Acetate accumulation. The cells were cultured in shake flasks with M9Y minimal medium. Data were taken from 72 h of cultivation.
529 530 531 532 533 534 535 28
ACS Paragon Plus Environment
Page 28 of 29
Page 29 of 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
536
ACS Synthetic Biology
For Table of Contents Use Only:
537
538 539
Metabolic engineering of a homoserine-derived non-natural pathway for the de
540
novo production of 1,3-propanediol from glucose
541
Weiqun Zhong1, Ye Zhang1, Wenjun Wu1, Dehua Liu1,2,3, and Zhen Chen1,2,3*
542 543 544
29
ACS Paragon Plus Environment