Project description:Fuel ethanol is now considered a global energy commodity that is fully competitive with gasoline. We have determined genome copy number differences that are common to five industrially important fuel ethanol yeast strains responsible for the production of billions of gallons of fuel ethanol per year from sugarcane. The fuel strains used were CAT1, BG1, PE2, SA1, and VR1 (note that two independent isolates were analyzed, denoted by "-1" and "-2"). These array-CGH data were compared with array-CGH data from nine other non-fuel industrial yeasts: An ale brewing strain ("Sc-ale"), four wine strains (GSY2A, GSY3A, GSY10A, GSY11B), and 4 bakers' yeast strains (GSY149, GSY150, GSY154, GSY155). Our results reveal significant amplifications of the telomeric SNO and SNZ genes only in the fuel strains, whose protein products are involved in the biosynthesis of vitamins B6 (pyridoxine) and B1 (thiamin). We show that these amplifications allow these yeasts to grow efficiently, especially at high sugar concentrations, regardless of the presence or absence of either of the two vitamins. Our results reveal important genetic adaptations that have been selected for in the industrial environment, which may be required for the efficient fermentation of biomass-derived sugars from other renewable feedstocks. A strain or line experiment design type assays differences between multiple strains, cultivars, serovars, isolates, lines from organisms of a single species. Strain Name: fuel strains used for aCGH
Project description:Microbes able to convert gaseous one-carbon (C1) waste feedstocks are increasingly important to transition to the sustainable production of renewable chemicals and fuels. Acetogens are interesting biocatalysts since gas fermentation using Clostridium autoethanogenum has been commercialised. However, most acetogen strains need complex nutrients, display slow growth, and are not robust for bioreactor fermentations. In this work, we used three different and independent adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) strategies to evolve the wild-type C. autoethanogenum to grow faster, without yeast extract and to be robust in operating continuous bioreactor cultures. Multiple evolved strains with improved phenotypes were isolated on minimal media with one strain, named “LAbrini”, exhibiting superior performance regarding the maximum specific growth rate, product profile, and robustness in continuous cultures. Whole-genome sequencing of the evolved strains identified 25 mutations. Of particular interest are two genes that acquired seven different mutations across the three ALE strategies, potentially as a result of convergent evolution. Reverse genetic engineering of mutations in potentially sporulation-related genes CLAU_3129 (spo0A) and CLAU_1957 recovered all three superior features of our ALE strains through triggering significant proteomic rearrangements. This work provides a robust C. autoethanogenum strain “LAbrini” to accelerate phenotyping and genetic engineering and to better understand acetogen metabolism.
Project description:Fuel ethanol is now considered a global energy commodity that is fully competitive with gasoline. We have determined genome copy number differences that are common to five industrially important fuel ethanol yeast strains responsible for the production of billions of gallons of fuel ethanol per year from sugarcane. The fuel strains used were CAT1, BG1, PE2, SA1, and VR1 (note that two independent isolates were analyzed, denoted by "-1" and "-2"). These array-CGH data were compared with array-CGH data from nine other non-fuel industrial yeasts: An ale brewing strain ("Sc-ale"), four wine strains (GSY2A, GSY3A, GSY10A, GSY11B), and 4 bakers' yeast strains (GSY149, GSY150, GSY154, GSY155). Our results reveal significant amplifications of the telomeric SNO and SNZ genes only in the fuel strains, whose protein products are involved in the biosynthesis of vitamins B6 (pyridoxine) and B1 (thiamin). We show that these amplifications allow these yeasts to grow efficiently, especially at high sugar concentrations, regardless of the presence or absence of either of the two vitamins. Our results reveal important genetic adaptations that have been selected for in the industrial environment, which may be required for the efficient fermentation of biomass-derived sugars from other renewable feedstocks. A strain or line experiment design type assays differences between multiple strains, cultivars, serovars, isolates, lines from organisms of a single species. Strain Name: fuel strains used for aCGH Strain_or_line_design
Project description:Microbes able to convert gaseous one-carbon (C1) waste feedstocks are increasingly important to transition to the sustainable production of renewable chemicals and fuels. Acetogens are interesting biocatalysts since gas fermentation using Clostridium autoethanogenum has been commercialised. However, most acetogen strains need complex nutrients, display slow growth, and are not robust for bioreactor fermentations. In this work, we used three different and independent adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) strategies to evolve the wild-type C. autoethanogenum to grow faster, without yeast extract and to be robust in operating continuous bioreactor cultures. Multiple evolved strains with improved phenotypes were isolated on minimal media with one strain, named “LAbrini”, exhibiting superior performance regarding the maximum specific growth rate, product profile, and robustness in continuous cultures. Whole-genome sequencing of the evolved strains identified 25 mutations. Of particular interest are two genes that acquired seven different mutations across the three ALE strategies, potentially as a result of convergent evolution. Reverse genetic engineering of mutations in potentially sporulation-related genes CLAU_3129 (spo0A) and CLAU_1957 recovered all three superior features of our ALE strains through triggering significant proteomic rearrangements. This work provides a robust C. autoethanogenum strain “LAbrini” to accelerate phenotyping and genetic engineering and to better understand acetogen metabolism.
Project description:To broaden microbial cell factories´ substrate scope towards renewable substrates, rational genetic interventions are often combined with adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE). However, comprehensive studies enabling a holistic understanding of adaptation processes primed by detailed knowledge of metabolism remain scarce, especially for non-model organisms. The industrial workhorse Pseudomonas putida was engineered to utilize the non-native sugar D-xylose, but its assimilation into the bacterial biochemical network via the exogenous pathway remained unresolved. Here, we elucidated the xylose metabolism and established a foundation for further engineering followed by ALE. By de-repressing native glycolysis, we unlocked the route for xylose-derived carbon and obtained a strain with a substantially reduced lag phase on xylose. We then enhanced the pentose phosphate pathway in two lag-shortened strains and allowed ALE to fine-tune the rewired metabolism. Following the metabolism tuning, we employed multi-level analysis that provided unique insights into the parallel paths of bacterial adaptation to the non-native carbon source.
Project description:Fit phenotypes are achieved through optimal transcriptomic allocation. Here, we performed a high-resolution, multi-scale study of the transcriptomic tradeoff between two key fitness phenotypes, stress response (fear) and growth (greed), in Escherichia coli. We introduced 12 RNA polymerase (RNAP) mutations commonly acquired during adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) and found that single mutations could result in large shifts in this fear vs. greed tradeoff likely through destabilizing the rpoB-rpoC interface. RpoS and GAD regulons drive the fear response while ribosomal proteins and the ppGpp regulon underlie greed. Growth rate selection pressure during ALE results in endpoint strains that universally have RNAP mutations, with synergistic mutations reflective of particular conditions. A phylogenetic analysis found the tradeoff in numerous bacteria species and one archaea species. The results suggest that the tradeoff represents a general principle of transcriptome allocation in bacteria where small genetic changes can result in large phenotypic adaptations to growth conditions.
Project description:Several groups have shown that through evolution experiments, tolerance and resistance evolved rapidly under cyclic antibiotic treatment. In other words, intermittent antibiotic exposure performed in a typical adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) experiments will “train” the bacteria to become tolerant/resistant to the drug. Although ALE has added new knowledge regarding the impact of varying treatment conditions on the evolution of tolerance/resistance, the role of some parameters such as population bottlenecks remains poorly understood. In this study, we employed ALE to investigate the evolution of methicillin-resistant S. aureus under repetitive daptomycin treatment using a modified protocol that incorporated population bottleneck following antibiotic exposure. We observed that although tolerance development is slower under bottlenecking conditions, the populations finally attained tolerance mutation in the yycH gene after twelve cycles of treatment. Extending the evolution experiment and changing the treatment scheme to a fast evolution protocol (treatment during exponential phase without bottlenecking) led to the emergence of daptomycin resistance (mutation in mprF gene). Through proteomics, we uncovered the differential adaptation strategies of these daptomycin tolerant and resistant MRSA strains, and how they respond differently to antibiotics compared to the ancestral wild-type.