Dataset Information

Establishment and application of a CRISPR-Cas12a assisted genome-editing system in Zymomonas mobilis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Efficient and convenient genome-editing toolkits can expedite genomic research and strain improvement for desirable phenotypes. Zymomonas mobilis is a highly efficient ethanol-producing bacterium with a small genome size and desirable industrial characteristics, which makes it a promising chassis for biorefinery and synthetic biology studies. While classical techniques for genetic manipulation are available for Z. mobilis, efficient genetic engineering toolkits enabling rapidly systematic and high-throughput genome editing in Z. mobilis are still lacking.

Results

Using Cas12a (Cpf1) from Francisella novicida, a recombinant strain with inducible cas12a expression for genome editing was constructed in Z. mobilis ZM4, which can be used to mediate RNA-guided DNA cleavage at targeted genomic loci. gRNAs were then designed targeting the replicons of native plasmids of ZM4 with about 100% curing efficiency for three native plasmids. In addition, CRISPR-Cas12a recombineering was used to promote gene deletion and insertion in one step efficiently and precisely with efficiency up to 90%. Combined with single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), CRISPR-Cas12a system was also applied to introduce minor nucleotide modification precisely into the genome with high fidelity. Furthermore, the CRISPR-Cas12a system was employed to introduce a heterologous lactate dehydrogenase into Z. mobilis with a recombinant lactate-producing strain constructed.

Conclusions

This study applied CRISPR-Cas12a in Z. mobilis and established a genome editing tool for efficient and convenient genome engineering in Z. mobilis including plasmid curing, gene deletion and insertion, as well as nucleotide substitution, which can also be employed for metabolic engineering to help divert the carbon flux from ethanol production to other products such as lactate demonstrated in this work. The CRISPR-Cas12a system established in this study thus provides a versatile and powerful genome-editing tool in Z. mobilis for functional genomic research, strain improvement, as well as synthetic microbial chassis development for economic biochemical production.

SUBMITTER: Shen W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6777028 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Establishment and application of a CRISPR-Cas12a assisted genome-editing system in Zymomonas mobilis.

Shen Wei W Zhang Jun J Geng Binan B Qiu Mengyue M Hu Mimi M Yang Qing Q Bao Weiwei W Xiao Yubei Y Zheng Yanli Y Peng Wenfang W Zhang Guimin G Ma Lixin L Yang Shihui S

Microbial cell factories 20191003 1

<h4>Background</h4>Efficient and convenient genome-editing toolkits can expedite genomic research and strain improvement for desirable phenotypes. Zymomonas mobilis is a highly efficient ethanol-producing bacterium with a small genome size and desirable industrial characteristics, which makes it a promising chassis for biorefinery and synthetic biology studies. While classical techniques for genetic manipulation are available for Z. mobilis, efficient genetic engineering toolkits enabling rapidl ...[more]

PMID: 31581942

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Project description:Zymomonas mobilis is a promising biofuel producer due to its high alcohol tolerance and streamlined metabolism that efficiently converts sugar to ethanol. Z. mobilis genes are poorly characterized relative to those of model bacteria, hampering our ability to rationally engineer the genome with pathways capable of converting sugars from plant hydrolysates into valuable biofuels and bioproducts. Many of the unique properties that make Z. mobilis an attractive biofuel producer are controlled by essential genes; however, these genes cannot be manipulated using traditional genetic approaches (e.g., deletion or transposon insertion) because they are required for viability. CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) is a programmable gene knockdown system that can precisely control the timing and extent of gene repression, thus enabling targeting of essential genes. Here, we establish a stable, high-efficacy CRISPRi system in Z. mobilis that is capable of perturbing all genes-including essential genes. We show that Z. mobilis CRISPRi causes either strong knockdowns (>100-fold) using single guide RNA (sgRNA) spacers that perfectly match target genes or partial knockdowns using spacers with mismatches. We demonstrate the efficacy of Z. mobilis CRISPRi by targeting essential genes that are universally conserved in bacteria, are key to the efficient metabolism of Z. mobilis, or underlie alcohol tolerance. Our Z. mobilis CRISPRi system will enable comprehensive gene function discovery, opening a path to rational design of biofuel production strains with improved yields.IMPORTANCE Biofuels produced by microbial fermentation of plant feedstocks provide renewable and sustainable energy sources that have the potential to mitigate climate change and improve energy security. Engineered strains of the bacterium Z. mobilis can convert sugars extracted from plant feedstocks into next-generation biofuels like isobutanol; however, conversion by these strains remains inefficient due to key gaps in our knowledge about genes involved in metabolism and stress responses such as alcohol tolerance. Here, we develop CRISPRi as a tool to explore gene function in Z. mobilis We characterize genes that are essential for growth, required to ferment sugar to ethanol, and involved in resistance to isobutanol. Our Z. mobilis CRISPRi system makes it straightforward to define gene function and can be applied to improve strain engineering and increase biofuel yields.

Project description:BackgroundCRISPR-Cas12a (formerly Cpf1) is an RNA-guided endonuclease with distinct features that have expanded genome editing capabilities. Cas12a-mediated genome editing is temperature sensitive in plants, but a lack of a comprehensive understanding on Cas12a temperature sensitivity in plant cells has hampered effective application of Cas12a nucleases in plant genome editing.ResultsWe compared AsCas12a, FnCas12a, and LbCas12a for their editing efficiencies and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) repair profiles at four different temperatures in rice. We found that AsCas12a is more sensitive to temperature and that it requires a temperature of over 28 °C for high activity. Each Cas12a nuclease exhibited distinct indel mutation profiles which were not affected by temperatures. For the first time, we successfully applied AsCas12a for generating rice mutants with high frequencies up to 93% among T0 lines. We next pursued editing in the dicot model plant Arabidopsis, for which Cas12a-based genome editing has not been previously demonstrated. While LbCas12a barely showed any editing activity at 22 °C, its editing activity was rescued by growing the transgenic plants at 29 °C. With an early high-temperature treatment regime, we successfully achieved germline editing at the two target genes, GL2 and TT4, in Arabidopsis transgenic lines. We then used high-temperature treatment to improve Cas12a-mediated genome editing in maize. By growing LbCas12a T0 maize lines at 28 °C, we obtained Cas12a-edited mutants at frequencies up to 100% in the T1 generation. Finally, we demonstrated DNA binding of Cas12a was not abolished at lower temperatures by using a dCas12a-SRDX-based transcriptional repression system in Arabidopsis.ConclusionOur study demonstrates the use of high-temperature regimes to achieve high editing efficiencies with Cas12a systems in rice, Arabidopsis, and maize and sheds light on the mechanism of temperature sensitivity for Cas12a in plants.

Dataset Information

Establishment and application of a CRISPR-Cas12a assisted genome-editing system in Zymomonas mobilis.

Background

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Establishment and application of a CRISPR-Cas12a assisted genome-editing system in Zymomonas mobilis.

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