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Modulating membrane composition alters free fatty acid tolerance in Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: Microbial synthesis of free fatty acids (FFA) is a promising strategy for converting renewable sugars to advanced biofuels and oleochemicals. Unfortunately, FFA production negatively impacts membrane integrity and cell viability in Escherichia coli, the dominant host in which FFA production has been studied. These negative effects provide a selective pressure against FFA production that could lead to genetic instability at industrial scale. In prior work, an engineered E. coli strain harboring an expression plasmid for the Umbellularia californica acyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) thioesterase was shown to have highly elevated levels of unsaturated fatty acids in the cell membrane. The change in membrane content was hypothesized to be one underlying cause of the negative physiological effects associated with FFA production. In this work, a connection between the regulator of unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis in E. coli, FabR, thioesterase expression, and unsaturated membrane content was established. A strategy for restoring normal membrane saturation levels and increasing tolerance towards endogenous production of FFAs was implemented by modulating acyl-ACP pools with a second thioesterase (from Geobacillus sp. Y412MC10) that primarily targets medium chain length, unsaturated acyl-ACPs. The strategy succeeded in restoring membrane content and improving viability in FFA producing E. coli while maintaining FFA titers. However, the restored fitness did not increase FFA productivity, indicating the existence of additional metabolic or regulatory barriers.

SUBMITTER: Lennen RM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3549993 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Modulating membrane composition alters free fatty acid tolerance in Escherichia coli.

Lennen Rebecca M RM Pfleger Brian F BF

PloS one 20130121 1

Microbial synthesis of free fatty acids (FFA) is a promising strategy for converting renewable sugars to advanced biofuels and oleochemicals. Unfortunately, FFA production negatively impacts membrane integrity and cell viability in Escherichia coli, the dominant host in which FFA production has been studied. These negative effects provide a selective pressure against FFA production that could lead to genetic instability at industrial scale. In prior work, an engineered E. coli strain harboring a ...[more]

PMID: 23349781

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Project description:Comparative analysis of changes in gene and protein expression and fatty acid profiles between Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 ΔfadD ΔaraBAD expressing an acyl-acyl carrier protein thioesterase from Umbellularia californica (BTE) or a non-functional mutant thioesterase (BTE-H204A) to determine the functional basis for losses in cell viability, membrane integrity, or other stresses and metabolic perturbations that may be present. New hypotheses obtained from the study will assist in metabolic engineering efforts of improved strains exhibiting higher fatty acid yields and productivities. Cultures of fatty acid overproducing (BTE-expressing) and negative control (non-functional BTE-H204A-expressing) strains of Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 delta-fadD delta-araBAD (deficient in beta-oxidation and L-arabinose catabolism) were sampled under two different sets of media/induction/antibiotic conditions. These conditions were shake flasks at 37C, 250 rpm shaking, in EZ rich defined medium supplemented with 0.2% glucose and 0.01 mM biotin (EZglu), and in fermentors at 37C with controlled air sparging, agitation, and pH in EZ rich defined medium supplemented with 0.4% glycerol and 0.01 mM biotin (EZgly). Two strains were analyzed in the EZglu experiment, the background strain harboring either pTrc99A-BTE (fatty acid overproducing) or pTrc99A-BTE-H204A (control phenotype). Three strains were analyzed in the EZgly experiment, with the background strain haboring either pBAD35-BTE and pBAD33 (fatty acid overproducing), pBAD35-BTE and pBAD33-ACC (fatty acid overproducing, ACC are the 4 subunits of E. coli K-12 acetyl-CoA carboxylase expressed as an artificial operon accDABC in plasmid pBAD33), and pBAD35-BTE-H204A and pBAD33 (control phenotype). RNA was extracted from harvested cell pellets from biological triplicates (EZglu) or biological duplicates (EZgly) of each strain at three different sampling times as defined in each sample description. Due to a hybridization or scanning problem, biological duplicates rather than triplicates were analyzed at the mid-stationary phase sampling point in the EZglu experiment for the control strain harboring pTrc99A-BTE-H204A. Multiple technical replicates at either the hybridization or sample level were analyzed from the biological duplicates of the fermentor experiment. The form of technical replicate (sample or hybridization) is specified in each EZgly sample description.

Project description:UNLABELLED: BACKGROUND:Thioesterases remove the fatty acyl moiety from the fatty acyl-acyl carrier proteins (ACPs), releasing them as free fatty acids (FFAs), which can be further used to produce a variety of fatty acid-based biofuels, such as biodiesel, fatty alcohols and alkanes. Thioesterases play a key role in the regulation of the fatty acid synthesis in Escherichia coli. Therefore, exploring more promising thioesterases will contribute to the development of industrial microbial lipids production. RESULTS:We cloned and expressed a cytosolic Acinetobacter baylyi thioesterase ('AcTesA) in E. coli by deleting its leader sequence. Protein sequence alignment, structure modeling and site-directed mutagenesis demonstrated that Ser10, Gly48, Asn77, Asp158 and His161 residues composed the active centre of 'AcTesA. The engineered strain that overexpressed 'AcTesA achieved a FFAs titer of up to 501.2 mg/L in shake flask, in contrast to only 20.5 mg/L obtained in wild-type E. coli, demonstrating that the expression of 'AcTesA indeed boosted the synthesis of FFAs. The 'AcTesA exhibited a substrate preference towards the C8-C16 acyl groups, with C14:0, C16:1, C12:0 and C8:0 FFAs being the top four components. Optimization of expression level of 'AcTesA made the FFAs production increase to 551.3 mg/L. The FFAs production further increased to 716.1 mg/L by optimization of the culture medium. Fed-batch fermentation was also carried out to evaluate the FFAs production in a scaleable process. Finally, 3.6 g/L FFAs were accumulated within 48 h, and a maximal FFAs yield of 6.1% was achieved in 12-16 h post induction. CONCLUSIONS:For the first time, an A. baylyi thioesterase was cloned and solubly expressed in the cytosol of E. coli. This leaderless thioesterase ('AcTesA) was found to be capable of enhancing the FFAs production of E. coli. Without detailed optimization of the strain and fermentation, the finally achieved 3.6 g/L FFAs is encouraging. In addition, 'AcTesA exhibited different substrate specificity from other thioesterases previously reported, and can be used to supply the fatty acid-based biofuels with high quality of FFAs. Altogether, this study provides a promising thioesterase for FFAs production, and is of great importance in enriching the library of useful thioesterases.

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Modulating membrane composition alters free fatty acid tolerance in Escherichia coli.

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Modulating membrane composition alters free fatty acid tolerance in Escherichia coli.

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