Project description: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.
2022-09-19 | PXD029605 | Pride
Project description:Enrichment of Mesophilic and Thermophilic Mixed Microbial Consortia for Syngas Biomethanation
Project description:Probiotics have been suggested as one solution to counter detrimental health effects by SARS-CoV-2, however, data so far is scarce. We tested the effect of two probiotic consortia, OL-1 and OL-2, against SARS-CoV2 in ferrets and assessed their effect on cytokine production and transcriptome in a human monocyte- derived macrophage (Mf) and dendritic cell (DC) model. The results showed that the consortia significantly reduced the viral load, modulated immune response, and regulated viral receptor expression in ferrets compared to placebo. In human Mf and DC model, OL-1 and OL-2 induced cytokine production and genes and related to SARS-CoV-2 anti-viral immunity. The study results indicate that probiotic stimulation of the ferret immune system leads to improved anti-viral immunity against SARS-COV-2 and that critical genes and cytokines for anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunity are stimulated in human immune cells in vitro. The effect of the consortia against SARS-CoV-2 warrants further investigations in human clinical trials.