Adaptive evolution of Methylotuvimicrobium alcaliphilum to grow in the presence of rhamnolipids improves fatty acid and rhamnolipid production from CH4
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ABSTRACT: Rhamnolipids (RL) are well-studied biosurfactants naturally produced by pathogenic strains of P. aeruginosa. Current methods to produce RLs in native and heterologous hosts have focused on carbohydrates as production substrate; however CH4 provides an intriguing alternative as a substrate for RL production because it is low-cost and may mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Here we demonstrate RL production from CH4 by Methylotuvimicrobium alcaliphilum 20Z. RLs were inhibitory to M. alcaliphilum growth at low concentrations (<0.05 g/L), so adaptive evolution was performed by growing M. alcaliphilum in increasing concentrations of RLs, producing a strain that grew in the presence of 5 g/L of RLs. Metabolomics and proteomics of the adapted strain grown on CH4 in the absence of RLs revealed metabolic changes increase in fatty acid production and secretion, alterations in gluconeogenesis, and increased secretion of lactate and osmolyte products compared to the parent strain. Expression of plasmid-borne RL production genes in the parent M. alcaliphilum strain resulted in cessation of growth and cell death. In contrast, the adapted strain transformed with the RL production genes showed no growth inhibition and produced up to 1 M of RLs, a 600-fold increase compared to the parent strain. This work has promise for developing technologies to produce fatty acid-derived bioporducts, including biosurfactants, from CH4.
INSTRUMENT(S): 6550 iFunnel Q-TOF LC/MS
ORGANISM(S): Methylomicrobium Alcaliphilum (strain Dsm 19304 / Ncimb 14124 / Vkm B-2133 / 20z)
SUBMITTER: Christopher Petzold
LAB HEAD: Christopher J. Petzold
PROVIDER: PXD029605 | Pride | 2022-09-19
REPOSITORIES: Pride
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