Dataset Information

Toxin-antitoxin systems on the large defense plasmid pSYSA of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are genetic elements, which are encoded by plasmid as well as chromosomal loci and mediate plasmid and genomic island maintenance through post-segregational killing mechanisms. TA systems exist in surprisingly high numbers in all prokaryotes, but cyanobacterial TA systems have been only very poorly experimentally characterized so far. Cyanobacteria are the only prokaryotes that perform oxygenic photosynthesis. As such, cyanobacteria are of high ecological importance and are considered promising for the production of biofuels. Here, we present the molecular characterization of the sll7003/ssl7004 TA system encoded on plasmid pSYSA of the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 as involving a Mg(2+)-dependent RNA endonuclease activity targeting single-stranded RNA regions and demonstrate the functionality of four more TA systems encoded on this 100,749-bp plasmid. Furthermore, one additional type I, one additional type II, and three freestanding TA system components are predicted on pSYSA, all of which appear active judged by their expression. By harboring at least seven simultaneously active TA systems, pSYSA appears as the plasmid most strongly selected for among all plasmids studied in this respect thus far. These results point to a high biological relevance of pSYSA, whose coding capacity is 75% devoted to three distinct clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) systems mediating antiviral defense.

SUBMITTER: Kopfmann S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3591647 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Toxin-antitoxin systems on the large defense plasmid pSYSA of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Kopfmann Stefan S Hess Wolfgang R WR

The Journal of biological chemistry 20130115 10

Bacterial toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are genetic elements, which are encoded by plasmid as well as chromosomal loci and mediate plasmid and genomic island maintenance through post-segregational killing mechanisms. TA systems exist in surprisingly high numbers in all prokaryotes, but cyanobacterial TA systems have been only very poorly experimentally characterized so far. Cyanobacteria are the only prokaryotes that perform oxygenic photosynthesis. As such, cyanobacteria are of high ecological i ...[more]

PMID: 23322786

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Project description:In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the research and development of sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. Using photosynthetic microorganisms to produce such alternatives is advantageous, since they can achieve direct conversion of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the desired product, using sunlight as the energy source. Squalene is a naturally occurring 30-carbon isoprenoid, which has commercial use in cosmetics and in vaccines. If it could be produced sustainably on a large scale, it could also be used instead of petroleum as a raw material for fuels and as feedstock for the chemical industry. The unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803 possesses a gene, slr2089, predicted to encode squalene hopene cyclase (Shc), an enzyme converting squalene into hopene, the substrate for forming hopanoids. Through inactivation of slr2089 (shc), we explored the possibility to produce squalene using cyanobacteria. The inactivation led to accumulation of squalene, to a level over 70 times higher than in wild type cells, reaching 0.67 mg OD750(-1) L(-1). We did not observe any significant growth deficiency in the Δshc strain compared to the wild type Synechocystis, even at high light conditions, suggesting that the observed squalene accumulation was not detrimental to growth, and that formation of hopene by Shc is not crucial for growth under normal conditions, nor for high-light stress tolerance. Effects of different light intensities and growth stages on squalene accumulation in the Δshc strain were investigated. We also identified a gene, sll0513, as a putative squalene synthase in Synechocystis, and verified its function by inactivation. In this work, we show that it is possible to use the cyanobacterium Synechocystis to generate squalene, a hydrocarbon of commercial interest and a potential biofuel. We also report the first identification of a squalene hopene cyclase, and the second identification of squalene synthase, in cyanobacteria.

Project description:BackgroundMetabolic engineering and synthetic biology of cyanobacteria offer a promising sustainable alternative approach for fossil-based ethylene production, by using sunlight via oxygenic photosynthesis, to convert carbon dioxide directly into ethylene. Towards this, both well-studied cyanobacteria, i.e., Synechocystis sp PCC 6803 and Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, have been engineered to produce ethylene by introducing the ethylene-forming enzyme (Efe) from Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola PK2 (the Kudzu strain), which catalyzes the conversion of the ubiquitous tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediate 2-oxoglutarate into ethylene.ResultsThis study focuses on Synechocystis sp PCC 6803 and shows stable ethylene production through the integration of a codon-optimized version of the efe gene under control of the Ptrc promoter and the core Shine-Dalgarno sequence (5'-AGGAGG-3') as the ribosome-binding site (RBS), at the slr0168 neutral site. We have increased ethylene production twofold by RBS screening and further investigated improving ethylene production from a single gene copy of efe, using multiple tandem promoters and by putting our best construct on an RSF1010-based broad-host-self-replicating plasmid, which has a higher copy number than the genome. Moreover, to raise the intracellular amounts of the key Efe substrate, 2-oxoglutarate, from which ethylene is formed, we constructed a glycogen-synthesis knockout mutant (ΔglgC) and introduced the ethylene biosynthetic pathway in it. Under nitrogen limiting conditions, the glycogen knockout strain has increased intracellular 2-oxoglutarate levels; however, surprisingly, ethylene production was lower in this strain than in the wild-type background.ConclusionMaking use of different RBS sequences, production of ethylene ranging over a 20-fold difference has been achieved. However, a further increase of production through multiple tandem promoters and a broad-host plasmid was not achieved speculating that the transcription strength and the gene copy number are not the limiting factors in our system.

Dataset Information

Toxin-antitoxin systems on the large defense plasmid pSYSA of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Publications

Toxin-antitoxin systems on the large defense plasmid pSYSA of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

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