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Improved growth rate in Clostridium thermocellum hydrogenase mutant via perturbed sulfur metabolism.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Metabolic engineering is a commonly used approach to develop organisms for an industrial function, but engineering aimed at improving one phenotype can negatively impact other phenotypes. This lack of robustness can prove problematic. Cellulolytic bacterium Clostridium thermocellum is able to rapidly ferment cellulose to ethanol and other products. Recently, genes involved in H2 production, including the hydrogenase maturase hydG and NiFe hydrogenase ech, were deleted from the chromosome of C. thermocellum. While ethanol yield increased, the growth rate of ?hydG decreased substantially compared to wild type. RESULTS:Addition of 5 mM acetate to the growth medium improved the growth rate in C. thermocellum ?hydG, whereas wild type remained unaffected. Transcriptomic analysis of the wild type showed essentially no response to the addition of acetate. However, in C. thermocellum ?hydG, 204 and 56 genes were significantly differentially regulated relative to wild type in the absence and presence of acetate, respectively. Genes, Clo1313_0108-0125, which are predicted to encode a sulfate transport system and sulfate assimilatory pathway, were drastically upregulated in C. thermocellum ?hydG in the presence of added acetate. A similar pattern was seen with proteomics. Further physiological characterization demonstrated an increase in sulfide synthesis and elimination of cysteine consumption in C. thermocellum ?hydG. Clostridium thermocellum ?hydG?ech had a higher growth rate than ?hydG in the absence of added acetate, and a similar but less pronounced transcriptional and physiological effect was seen in this strain upon addition of acetate. CONCLUSIONS:Sulfur metabolism is perturbed in C. thermocellum ?hydG strains, likely to increase flux through sulfate reduction to act either as an electron sink to balance redox reactions or to offset an unknown deficiency in sulfur assimilation.

SUBMITTER: Biswas R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5209896 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Improved growth rate in <i>Clostridium thermocellum</i> hydrogenase mutant via perturbed sulfur metabolism.

Biswas Ranjita R Wilson Charlotte M CM Giannone Richard J RJ Klingeman Dawn M DM Rydzak Thomas T Shah Manesh B MB Hettich Robert L RL Brown Steven D SD Guss Adam M AM

Biotechnology for biofuels 20170103

<h4>Background</h4>Metabolic engineering is a commonly used approach to develop organisms for an industrial function, but engineering aimed at improving one phenotype can negatively impact other phenotypes. This lack of robustness can prove problematic. Cellulolytic bacterium <i>Clostridium thermocellum</i> is able to rapidly ferment cellulose to ethanol and other products. Recently, genes involved in H<sub>2</sub> production, including the hydrogenase maturase <i>hydG</i> and NiFe hydrogenase < ...[more]

PMID: 28053665

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Project description:Clostridium thermocellum is a leading candidate organism for implementing a consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) strategy for biofuel production due to its native ability to rapidly consume cellulose and its existing ethanol production pathway. C. thermocellum converts cellulose and cellobiose to lactate, formate, acetate, H2, ethanol, amino acids, and other products. Elimination of the pathways leading to products such as H2 could redirect carbon flux towards ethanol production. Rather than delete each hydrogenase individually, we targeted a hydrogenase maturase gene (hydG), which is involved in converting the three [FeFe] hydrogenase apoenzymes into holoenzymes by assembling the active site. This functionally inactivated all three Fe-Fe hydrogenases simultaneously, as they were unable to make active enzymes. In the ∆hydG mutant, the [NiFe] hydrogenase-encoding ech was also deleted to obtain a mutant that functionally lacks all hydrogenase. The ethanol yield increased nearly 2-fold in ∆hydG∆ech compared to wild type, and H2 production was below the detection limit. Interestingly, ∆hydG and ∆hydG∆ech exhibited improved growth in the presence of acetate in the medium. Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis reveal that genes related to sulfate transport and metabolism were up-regulated in the presence of added acetate in ∆hydG, resulting in altered sulfur metabolism. Further genomic analysis of this strain revealed a mutation in the bi-functional alcohol/aldehyde dehydrogenase adhE gene, resulting in a strain with both NADH- and NADPH-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase activities, whereas the wild type strain can only utilize NADH. This is the exact same adhE mutation found in ethanol-tolerant C. thermocellum strain E50C, but ∆hydG∆ech is not more ethanol tolerant than the wild type. Targeting protein post-translational modification is a promising new approach to target multiple enzymes simultaneously for metabolic engineering. A seventeen array study using total RNA recovered from fermentation cultures of three strains (parental, ∆hydG and ∆hydG∆ech) of Clostridium thermocellum DSM1313. Cells were harvested at an OD 0.4-0.5 from cultures grown in the presence of additional 5mM acetate and compared to untreated controls. At least two biological replicates were performed for each treatment and control condition.

Project description:BackgroundClostridium thermocellum produces H2 and ethanol, as well as CO2, acetate, formate, and lactate, directly from cellulosic biomass. It is therefore an attractive model for biofuel production via consolidated bioprocessing. Optimization of end-product yields and titres is crucial for making biofuel production economically feasible. Relative protein expression profiles may provide targets for metabolic engineering, while understanding changes in protein expression and metabolism in response to carbon limitation, pH, and growth phase may aid in reactor optimization. We performed shotgun 2D-HPLC-MS/MS on closed-batch cellobiose-grown exponential phase C. thermocellum cell-free extracts to determine relative protein expression profiles of core metabolic proteins involved carbohydrate utilization, energy conservation, and end-product synthesis. iTRAQ (isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation) based protein quantitation was used to determine changes in core metabolic proteins in response to growth phase.ResultsRelative abundance profiles revealed differential levels of putative enzymes capable of catalyzing parallel pathways. The majority of proteins involved in pyruvate catabolism and end-product synthesis were detected with high abundance, with the exception of aldehyde dehydrogenase, ferredoxin-dependent Ech-type [NiFe]-hydrogenase, and RNF-type NADH:ferredoxin oxidoreductase. Using 4-plex 2D-HPLC-MS/MS, 24% of the 144 core metabolism proteins detected demonstrated moderate changes in expression during transition from exponential to stationary phase. Notably, proteins involved in pyruvate synthesis decreased in stationary phase, whereas proteins involved in glycogen metabolism, pyruvate catabolism, and end-product synthesis increased in stationary phase. Several proteins that may directly dictate end-product synthesis patterns, including pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductases, alcohol dehydrogenases, and a putative bifurcating hydrogenase, demonstrated differential expression during transition from exponential to stationary phase.ConclusionsRelative expression profiles demonstrate which proteins are likely utilized in carbohydrate utilization and end-product synthesis and suggest that H2 synthesis occurs via bifurcating hydrogenases while ethanol synthesis is predominantly catalyzed by a bifunctional aldehyde/alcohol dehydrogenase. Differences in expression profiles of core metabolic proteins in response to growth phase may dictate carbon and electron flux towards energy storage compounds and end-products. Combined knowledge of relative protein expression levels and their changes in response to physiological conditions may aid in targeted metabolic engineering strategies and optimization of fermentation conditions for improvement of biofuels production.

Dataset Information

Improved growth rate in Clostridium thermocellum hydrogenase mutant via perturbed sulfur metabolism.

Publications

Improved growth rate in <i>Clostridium thermocellum</i> hydrogenase mutant via perturbed sulfur metabolism.

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