Engineering promoter regulation

Toward design-based engineering of industrial microbes

Engineering industrial microbes has been hampered by incomplete knowledge of cell biology. Thus an iterative engineering cycle of modeling, implementation, and analysis has been used to increase knowledge of the underlying biology while achieving engineering goals. Recent advances in Systems Biology technologies have drastically improved the amount of information that can be collected in each iteration. As well, Synthetic Biology tools are melding modeling and molecular implementation. These advances promise to move microbial engineering from the iterative approach to a design-oriented paradigm, similar to electrical circuits and architectural design. Genome-scale metabolic models, new tools for controlling expression, and integrated -omics analysis are described as key contributors in moving the field toward Design-based Engineering.

Strategies for enhancing bioluminescent bacterial sensor performance by promoter region manipulation

Bioluminescent bacterial sensors are based upon the fusion of bacterial bioluminescence (lux) genes, acting as a reporter element, to selected bacterial stress‐response gene promoters. Depending upon the nature of the promoter, the resulting constructs react to diverse types of environmental stress, including the presence of toxic chemicals, by dose‐dependant light emission. Two bacterial sensors, harbouring sulA::luxCDABE and grpE::luxCDABE fusions, activated by the model chemicals nalidixic acid (NA) and ethanol, respectively, were subjected to molecular manipulations of the promoter region, in order to enhance the intensity and speed of their response and lower their detection thresholds. By manipulating the length of the promoter‐containing segment (both promoters), by introducing random or specific mutations in the promoter sequence or by duplicating the promoter sequence (sulA only), major improvements in sensor performance were obtained. Improvements included significantly enhanced sensitivity, earlier response times and an increase in signal intensity. The general approaches described herein may be of general applicability for optimizing bacterial sensor performance, regardless of the sensing or reporting elements employed.

Transcriptomics analyses reveal global roles of the regulator AveI in Streptomyces avermitilis

In our previous studies, AveI was identified as a negative regulator for avermectin biosynthesis in Streptomyces avermitilis NRRL8165, and the aveI-null mutant of NRRL8165 could produce at least 10-fold more avermectin B1a than its wild-type strain. In order to explore the regulatory mechanism by which aveI affects avermectin biosynthesis, in this study, we performed a global comparative gene expression analysis between aveI deletion mutant 8165DeltaI and its wild-type strain using NimbleGen microarrays in combination with real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR. The results showed the aveI deletion has caused global changes beyond the avermectin biosynthetic gene cluster. The aveI gene not only negatively affected expression of the avermectin biosynthetic gene cluster but also affected expression of oligomycin and filipin biosynthetic clusters. In addition, the genes involved in precursor biosyntheses for avermectin or other antibiotics, such as crotonyl-CoA reductase and methylmalonyl-CoA decarboxylase, were also upregulated in aveI mutant. Furthermore, genes in several key primary metabolic pathways, such as protein synthesis and fatty acid metabolism, were found downregulated in the mutant. These results suggested that the aveI gene may be functioning as a global regulator involved in directing carbon flux from primary to secondary metabolism.

Progress in metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The traditional use of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in alcoholic fermentation has, over time, resulted in substantial accumulated knowledge concerning genetics, physiology, and biochemistry as well as genetic engineering and fermentation technologies. S. cerevisiae has become a platform organism for developing metabolic engineering strategies, methods, and tools. The current review discusses the relevance of several engineering strategies, such as rational and inverse metabolic engineering, evolutionary engineering, and global transcription machinery engineering, in yeast strain improvement. It also summarizes existing tools for fine-tuning and regulating enzyme activities and thus metabolic pathways. Recent examples of yeast metabolic engineering for food, beverage, and industrial biotechnology (bioethanol and bulk and fine chemicals) follow. S. cerevisiae currently enjoys increasing popularity as a production organism in industrial ("white") biotechnology due to its inherent tolerance of low pH values and high ethanol and inhibitor concentrations and its ability to grow anaerobically. Attention is paid to utilizing lignocellulosic biomass as a potential substrate.