Systems-wide understanding of the osmotic response and metabolic rearrangement in Bacillus megaterium

ABSTRACT: For many years now, Bacillus megaterium has served as a microbial industrial strain for high-level production of recombinant proteins in the g/L-scale. Nevertheless, the impact of process-related stress has only been poorly characterized so far. Taking advantage of the recent technical developments for quantifying the cell at various molecular levels, we interrogated the osmotic stress response of B. megaterium using transcriptome, proteome, metabolome and fluxome analyses. Under osmotic upshift conditions, several stress response enzymes, iron scavenging, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) fighting proteins were upregulated. The downregulation of genes of the upper part of glycolysis resulted in the activation of the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), generating an oversupply of NADPH. The (NADH/NAD+) ratio indicating the redox state of the cell was also altered, which was partially compensated by the higher production of lactate accompanied by the reduction of acetate secretion. NADH was produced mainly within the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) cycle elucidated from the higher mRNA and protein levels of enzymes involved within this pathway. This adaptation mainly focused on the massive de novo synthesis of the compatible solute proline recruiting an osmo-dependent pathway to fulfil this requirement. 13C flux analyses confirmed these findings. Giving the high flux towards acetyl-CoA and large pool of NADPH, B. megaterium cells redirected the produced acetyl-CoA to the polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) biosynthetic pathway under non-limiting nutrient condition, amassing around 30% of the CDW as PHB. This direct relation between osmotic stress and intracellular PHB content has been evidenced for the first time, thus opening new avenues for synthesizing this valuable biopolymer using varying salt concentrations under non-limiting nutrient conditions.

INSTRUMENT(S): Synapt MS

ORGANISM(S): Bacillus Megaterium (strain Dsm 319)

SUBMITTER: Daniela Zuehlke  

LAB HEAD: Katharina Riedel

PROVIDER: PXD015605 | Pride | 2020-05-26

REPOSITORIES: Pride