Identification of the membrane protein SucE and its role in succinate transport in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Enhanced l-serine synthesis in Corynebacterium glutamicum by exporter engineering and Bayesian optimization of the medium composition

l-serine is a versatile, high value-added amino acid, widely used in food, medicine and cosmetics. However, the low titer of l-serine has limited its industrial production. In this study, a cell factory without plasmid for efficient production of l-serine was constructed based on transport engineering. Firstly, the effects of l-serine exporter SerE overexpression and deletion on the cell growth and l-serine titer were investigated in Corynebacterium glutamicum (C. glutamicum) A36, overexpression of s erE using a plasmid led to a 15.1% increase in l-serine titer but also caused a 15.1% decrease in cell growth. Subsequently, to increase the export capacity of SerE, we conducted semi-rational design and bioinformatics analysis, combined with alanine mutation and site-specific saturation mutation. The mutant E277K was obtained and exhibited a 53.2% higher export capacity compared to wild-type SerE, resulting in l-serine titer increased by 39.6%. Structural analysis and molecular dynamics simulations were performed to elucidate the mechanism. The results showed that the mutation shortened the hydrogen bond distance between the exporter and l-serine, enhanced complex stability, and reduced the binding energy. Finally, Bayesian optimization was employed to further improve l-serine titer of the mutant strain C-E277K. Under the optimized conditions, 47.77 g/L l-serine was achieved in a 5-L bioreactor, representing the highest reported titer for C. glutamicum to date. This study provides a basis for the transformation of l-serine export pathway and offers a new strategy for increasing l-serine titer.

Impact of exporter proteins and their engineering on the productivity of Corynebacterium

Enhancing product efflux is crucial in improving fermentative bioproduction. Despite advancements in metabolic engineering guided by the design-build-test-learn cycle, membrane transport engineering of product efflux remains underdeveloped, limiting the efficient production of target chemicals. This review explores the historical findings on product efflux, regardless of passive or active transport, in fermentation engineering, focusing on Corynebacterium species, and highlights the potential of multidrug transporters as valuable screening sources for efflux improvement. Furthermore, the review emphasizes the importance of understanding the machinery of efflux transporters to optimize their functionality. Molecular dynamics simulations are a promising tool for exploring novel strategies to advance fermentation-related processes. These insights provide a framework for overcoming current challenges in membrane transport engineering of product efflux and improving industrial-scale bioproduction. KEY POINTS: • Review of strategies to enhance product efflux in Corynebacterium species. • Multidrug transporters are key tools for optimizing metabolite efflux. • Efflux transporter mechanisms analyzed to improve microbial productivity. • Molecular dynamics simulations employed for understanding transporter mechanisms.

Succinic acid production from softwood with genome-edited Corynebacterium glutamicum using the CRISPR-Cpf1 system

Corynebacterium glutamicum is a useful microbe that can be used for producing succinic acid under anaerobic conditions. In this study, we generated a knock-out mutant of the lactate dehydrogenase 1 gene (ΔldhA-6) and co-expressed the succinic acid transporter (Psod:SucE- ΔldhA) using the CRISPR-Cpf1 genome editing system. The highly efficient HPAC (hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid) pretreatment method was employed for the enzymatic hydrolysis of softwood (Pinus densiflora) and subsequently utilized for production of succinic acid. Upon evaluating a 1%-5% hydrolysate concentration range, optimal succinic acid production with the ΔldhA mutant was achieved at a 4% hydrolysate concentration. This resulted in 14.82 g L-1 succinic acid production over 6 h. No production of acetic acid and lactic acid was detected during the fermentation. The co-expression transformant, [Psod:SucE-ΔldhA] produced 17.70 g L-1 succinic acid in 6 h. In the fed-batch system, 39.67 g L-1 succinic acid was produced over 48 h. During the fermentation, the strain consumed 100% and 73% of glucose and xylose, respectively. The yield of succinic acid from the sugars consumed was approximately 0.77 g succinic acid/g sugars. These results indicate that the production of succinic acid from softwood holds potential applications in alternative biochemical processes.

Development of a 2-hydroxyglutarate production system by Corynebacterium glutamicum

2-Oxoglutarate (2-OG) is a tricarboxylate cycle intermediate that can be biologically converted into several industrially important compounds. However, studies on the fermentative production of compounds synthesized from 2-OG, but not via glutamate (defined as 2-OG derivatives), have been limited. Herein, a system that can efficiently produce 2-hydroxyglutarate (2-HG), a 2-OG derivative biosynthesized by the hgdH-encoded NADH-dependent 2-HG dehydrogenase of Acidaminococcus fermentans, was developed as a model using Corynebacterium glutamicum. First, the D3 strain, which lacked the two NADH-consuming enzymes, lactate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase, as well as isocitrate lyase, was constructed as a starting strain. Next, the growth conditions that induced the accumulation of 2-OG were investigated, and it was found that the biotin- and nitrogen-limited (B/N-limited) aerobic growth conditions were suitable for this purpose. Finally, the hgdH gene of A. fermentans became overexpressed in the D3 strain by inserting it into the intergenic regions with the strong constitutive promoter of the tuf gene of C. glutamicum; the engineered strain was cultured under the B/N-limited aerobic growth conditions. The engineered strain produced 80.1 mM 2-HG with a yield of 0.390 mol/mol glucose, which are the highest titer and yield reported thus far, to the best of our knowledge. Furthermore, reverse genetics showed that the produced 2-HG was partially exported via the YggB protein (NCgl1221 protein, a mechanosensitive channel) known as an exporter for glutamate under the conditions used herein. KEY POINTS: • An efficient 2-HG production system was developed with Corynebacterium glutamicum. • Biotin- and nitrogen-limited aerobic growth conditions induced 2-OG production. • Produced 2-HG was partially excreted via the glutamate exporter, YggB.

Global Cellular Metabolic Rewiring Adapts Corynebacterium glutamicum to Efficient Nonnatural Xylose Utilization

Xylose, the major component of lignocellulosic biomass, cannot be naturally or efficiently utilized by most microorganisms. Xylose (co)utilization is considered a cornerstone of efficient lignocellulose-based biomanufacturing. We evolved a rapidly xylose-utilizing strain, Cev2-18-5, which showed the highest reported specific growth rate (0.357 h^-1) on xylose among plasmid-free Corynebacterium glutamicum strains. A genetically clear chassis strain, CGS15, was correspondingly reconstructed with an efficient glucose-xylose coutilization performance based on comparative genomic analysis and mutation reconstruction. With the introduction of a succinate-producing plasmid, the resulting strain, CGS15-SA1, can efficiently produce 97.1 g/L of succinate with an average productivity of 8.09 g/L/h by simultaneously utilizing glucose and xylose from corn stalk hydrolysate. We further revealed a novel xylose regulatory mechanism mediated by the endogenous transcription factor IpsA with global regulatory effects on C. glutamicum. A synergistic effect on carbon metabolism and energy supply, motivated by three genomic mutations (P_sod(C131T)-xylAB, P_tuf(Δ21)-araE, and ipsA^C331T), was found to endow C. glutamicum with the efficient xylose utilization and rapid growth phenotype. Overall, this work not only provides promising C. glutamicum chassis strains for a lignocellulosic biorefinery but also enriches the understanding of the xylose regulatory mechanism. IMPORTANCE A novel xylose regulatory mechanism mediated by the transcription factor IpsA was revealed. A synergistic effect on carbon metabolism and energy supply was found to endow C. glutamicum with the efficient xylose utilization and rapid growth phenotype. The new xylose regulatory mechanism enriches the understanding of nonnatural substrate metabolism and encourages exploration new engineering targets for rapid xylose utilization. This work also provides a paradigm to understand and engineer the metabolism of nonnatural renewable substrates for sustainable biomanufacturing.

Genomics Characterization of an Engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum in Bioreactor Cultivation Under Ionic Liquid Stress

Corynebacterium glutamicum is an ideal microbial chassis for production of valuable bioproducts including amino acids and next generation biofuels. Here we resequence engineered isopentenol (IP) producing C. glutamicum BRC-JBEI 1.1.2 strain and assess differential transcriptional profiles using RNA sequencing under industrially relevant conditions including scale transition and compare the presence vs absence of an ionic liquid, cholinium lysinate ([Ch][Lys]). Analysis of the scale transition from shake flask to bioreactor with transcriptomics identified a distinct pattern of metabolic and regulatory responses needed for growth in this industrial format. These differential changes in gene expression corroborate altered accumulation of organic acids and bioproducts, including succinate, acetate, and acetoin that occur when cells are grown in the presence of 50 mM [Ch][Lys] in the stirred-tank reactor. This new genome assembly and differential expression analysis of cells grown in a stirred tank bioreactor clarify the cell response of an C. glutamicum strain engineered to produce IP.

The Escherichia coli CitT transporter can be used as a succinate exporter for succinate production

Escherichia coli strain, whose gene is one of the subunits of succinate dehydrogenase (sdhA), and gene of the transcriptional repressor of isocitrate lyase (iclR) were disrupted, accumulated 6.6 times as much intracellular succinate as the wild-type MG1655 strain in aerobic growth, but succinate was not found in the culture medium. E. coli citT gene that encodes a citrate transporter was cloned under the control of the lacI promoter in pBR322-based plasmid and the above strain was transformed. This transformant, grown under aerobic condition in M9-tryptone medium with citrate, accumulated succinate in the medium while no succinate was found in the medium without citrate. CitT was active as a succinate transporter for 168 h by changing the culture medium or for 24 h in fed-batch culture. This study suggests that the CitT transporter functions as a succinate exporter in E. coli for succinate production in the presence of citrate.

Fermentative Production of l-2-Hydroxyglutarate by Engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum via Pathway Extension of l-Lysine Biosynthesis

l-2-hydroxyglutarate (l-2HG) is a trifunctional building block and highly attractive for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The natural l-lysine biosynthesis pathway of the amino acid producer Corynebacterium glutamicum was extended for the fermentative production of l-2HG. Since l-2HG is not native to the metabolism of C. glutamicum metabolic engineering of a genome-streamlined l-lysine overproducing strain was required to enable the conversion of l-lysine to l-2HG in a six-step synthetic pathway. To this end, l-lysine decarboxylase was cascaded with two transamination reactions, two NAD(P)-dependent oxidation reactions and the terminal 2-oxoglutarate-dependent glutarate hydroxylase. Of three sources for glutarate hydroxylase the metalloenzyme CsiD from Pseudomonas putida supported l-2HG production to the highest titers. Genetic experiments suggested a role of succinate exporter SucE for export of l-2HG and improving expression of its gene by chromosomal exchange of its native promoter improved l-2HG production. The availability of Fe²⁺ as cofactor of CsiD was identified as a major bottleneck in the conversion of glutarate to l-2HG. As consequence of strain engineering and media adaptation product titers of 34 ± 0 mM were obtained in a microcultivation system. The glucose-based process was stable in 2 L bioreactor cultivations and a l-2HG titer of 3.5 g L⁻¹ was obtained at the higher of two tested aeration levels. Production of l-2HG from a sidestream of the starch industry as renewable substrate was demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first description of fermentative production of l-2HG, a monomeric precursor used in electrochromic polyamides, to cross-link polyamides or to increase their biodegradability.

High-yield production of L-serine through a novel identified exporter combined with synthetic pathway in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Background

l-Serine has wide and increasing applications in industries with fast-growing market demand. Although strategies for achieving and improving l-serine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum (C. glutamicum) have focused on inhibiting its degradation and enhancing its biosynthetic pathway, l-serine yield has remained relatively low. Exporters play an essential role in the fermentative production of amino acids. To achieve higher l-serine yield, l-serine export from the cell should be improved. In C. glutamicum, ThrE, which can export l-threonine and l-serine, is the only identified l-serine exporter so far.

Results

In this study, a novel l-serine exporter NCgl0580 was identified and characterized in C. glutamicum ΔSSAAI (SSAAI), and named as SerE (encoded by serE). Deletion of serE in SSAAI led to a 56.5% decrease in l-serine titer, whereas overexpression of serE compensated for the lack of serE with respect to l-serine titer. A fusion protein with SerE and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) was constructed to confirm that SerE localized at the plasma membrane. The function of SerE was studied by peptide feeding approaches, and the results showed that SerE is a novel exporter for l-serine and l-threonine in C. glutamicum. Subsequently, the interaction of a known l-serine exporter ThrE and SerE was studied, and the results suggested that SerE is more important than ThrE in l-serine export in SSAAI. In addition, probe plasmid and electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) revealed NCgl0581 as the transcriptional regulator of SerE. Comparative transcriptomics between SSAAI and the NCgl0581 deletion strain showed that NCgl0581 is a positive regulator of NCgl0580. Finally, by overexpressing the novel exporter SerE, combined with l-serine synthetic pathway key enzyme serAΔ197, serC, and serB, the resulting strain presented an l-serine titer of 43.9 g/L with a yield of 0.44 g/g sucrose, which is the highest l-serine titer and yield reported so far in C. glutamicum.

Conclusions

This study provides a novel target for l-serine and l-threonine export engineering as well as a new global transcriptional regulator NCgl0581 in C. glutamicum.

Engineering transport systems for microbial production

The rapid development in the field of metabolic engineering has enabled complex modifications of metabolic pathways to generate a diverse product portfolio. Manipulating substrate uptake and product export is an important research area in metabolic engineering. Optimization of transport systems has the potential to enhance microbial production of renewable fuels and chemicals. This chapter comprehensively reviews the transport systems critical for microbial production as well as current genetic engineering strategies to improve transport functions and thus production metrics. In addition, this chapter highlights recent advancements in engineering microbial efflux systems to enhance cellular tolerance to industrially relevant chemical stress. Lastly, future directions to address current technological gaps are discussed.

Metabolic engineering advances and prospects for amino acid production

Amino acid fermentation is one of the major pillars of industrial biotechnology. The multi-billion USD amino acid market is rising steadily and is diversifying. Metabolic engineering is no longer focused solely on strain development for the bulk amino acids L-glutamate and L-lysine that are produced at the million-ton scale, but targets specialty amino acids. These demands are met by the development and application of new metabolic engineering tools including CRISPR and biosensor technologies as well as production processes by enabling a flexible feedstock concept, co-production and co-cultivation schemes. Metabolic engineering advances are exemplified for specialty proteinogenic amino acids, cyclic amino acids, omega-amino acids, and amino acids functionalized by hydroxylation, halogenation and N-methylation.

Function of L-Pipecolic Acid as Compatible Solute in Corynebacterium glutamicum as Basis for Its Production Under Hyperosmolar Conditions

Pipecolic acid or L-PA is a cyclic amino acid derived from L-lysine which has gained interest in the recent years within the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. L-PA can be produced efficiently using recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum strains by expanding the natural L-lysine biosynthetic pathway. L-PA is a six-membered ring homolog of the five-membered ring amino acid L-proline, which serves as compatible solute in C. glutamicum.

Here, we show that de novo synthesized or externally added L-PA partially is beneficial for growth under hyper-osmotic stress conditions. C. glutamicum cells accumulated L-PA under elevated osmotic pressure and released it after an osmotic down shock. In the absence of the mechanosensitive channel YggB intracellular L-PA concentrations increased and its release after osmotic down shock was slower. The proline permease ProP was identified as a candidate L-PA uptake system since RNAseq analysis revealed increased proP RNA levels upon L-PA production. Under hyper-osmotic conditions, a ΔproP strain showed similar growth behavior than the parent strain when L-proline was added externally. By contrast, the growth impairment of the ΔproP strain under hyper-osmotic conditions could not be alleviated by addition of L-PA unless proP was expressed from a plasmid. This is commensurate with the view that L-proline can be imported into the C. glutamicum cell by ProP and other transporters such as EctP and PutP, while ProP appears of major importance for L-PA uptake under hyper-osmotic stress conditions.

Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the production of cis, cis-muconic acid from lignin

Background

Cis, cis-muconic acid (MA) is a dicarboxylic acid of recognized industrial value. It provides direct access to adipic acid and terephthalic acid, prominent monomers of commercial plastics.

Results

In the present work, we engineered the soil bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum into a stable genome-based cell factory for high-level production of bio-based MA from aromatics and lignin hydrolysates. The elimination of muconate cycloisomerase (catB) in the catechol branch of the β-ketoadipate pathway provided a mutant, which accumulated MA at 100% molar yield from catechol, phenol, and benzoic acid, using glucose as additional growth substrate. The production of MA was optimized by constitutive overexpression of catA, which increased the activity of the encoded catechol 1,2-dioxygenase, forming MA from catechol, tenfold. Intracellular levels of catechol were more than 30-fold lower than extracellular levels, minimizing toxicity, but still saturating the high affinity CatA enzyme. In a fed-batch process, the created strain C. glutamicum MA-2 accumulated 85 g L⁻¹ MA from catechol in 60 h and achieved a maximum volumetric productivity of 2.4 g L⁻¹ h⁻¹. The strain was furthermore used to demonstrate the production of MA from lignin in a cascade process. Following hydrothermal depolymerization of softwood lignin into small aromatics, the MA-2 strain accumulated 1.8 g L⁻¹ MA from the obtained hydrolysate.

Conclusions

Our findings open the door to valorize lignin, the second most abundant polymer on earth, by metabolically engineered C. glutamicum for industrial production of MA and potentially other chemicals.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12934-018-0963-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for production of sunscreen shinorine

Ultraviolet-absorbing chemicals are useful in cosmetics and skin care to prevent UV-induced skin damage. We demonstrate here that heterologous production of shinorine, which shows broad absorption maxima in the UV-A and UV-B region. A shinorine producing Corynebacterium glutamicum strain was constructed by expressing four genes from Actinosynnema mirum DSM 43827, which are responsible for the biosynthesis of shinorine from sedoheptulose-7-phosphate in the pentose phosphate pathway. Deletion of transaldolase encoding gene improved shinorine production by 5.2-fold. Among the other genes in pentose phosphate pathway, overexpression of 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase encoding gene further increased shinorine production by 60% (19.1 mg/L). The genetic engineering of the pentose phosphate pathway in C. glutamicum improved shinorine production by 8.3-fold in total, and could be applied to produce the other chemicals derived from sedoheptulose-7-phosphate.

A new metabolic route for the fermentative production of 5-aminovalerate from glucose and alternative carbon sources

Here, a new metabolic pathway for the production of 5-aminovalerate (5AVA) from l-lysine via cadaverine as intermediate was established and this three-step-pathway comprises l-lysine decarboxylase (LdcC), putrescine transaminase (PatA) and γ-aminobutyraldehyde dehydrogenase (PatD). Since Corynebacterium glutamicum is used for industrial l-lysine production, the pathway was established in this bacterium. Upon expression of ldcC, patA and patD from Escherichia coli in C. glutamicum wild type, production 5AVA was achieved. Enzyme assays revealed that PatA and PatD also converted cadaverine to 5AVA. Eliminating the by-products cadaverine, N-acetylcadaverine and glutarate in a genome-streamlined l-lysine producing strain expressing ldcC, patA and patD improved 5AVA production to a titer of 5.1gL^-1, a yield of 0.13gg^-1 and a volumetric productivity of 0.12gL^-1h^-1. Moreover, 5AVA production from the alternative feedstocks starch, glucosamine, xylose and arabinose was established.

Escherichia coli yjjPB genes encode a succinate transporter important for succinate production

Under anaerobic conditions, Escherichia coli produces succinate from glucose via the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle. To date, however, no genes encoding succinate exporters have been established in E. coli. Therefore, we attempted to identify genes encoding succinate exporters by screening an E. coli MG1655 genome library. We identified the yjjPB genes as candidates encoding a succinate transporter, which enhanced succinate production in Pantoea ananatis under aerobic conditions. A complementation assay conducted in Corynebacterium glutamicum strain AJ110655ΔsucE1 demonstrated that both YjjP and YjjB are required for the restoration of succinate production. Furthermore, deletion of yjjPB decreased succinate production in E. coli by 70% under anaerobic conditions. Taken together, these results suggest that YjjPB constitutes a succinate transporter in E. coli and that the products of both genes are required for succinate export.

Improved fermentative production of gamma-aminobutyric acid via the putrescine route: Systems metabolic engineering for production from glucose, amino sugars, and xylose

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-protein amino acid widespread in Nature. Among the various uses of GABA, its lactam form 2-pyrrolidone can be chemically converted to the biodegradable plastic polyamide-4. In metabolism, GABA can be synthesized either by decarboxylation of l-glutamate or by a pathway that starts with the transamination of putrescine. Fermentative production of GABA from glucose by recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum has been described via both routes. Putrescine-based GABA production was characterized by accumulation of by-products such as N-acetyl-putrescine. Their formation was abolished by deletion of the spermi(di)ne N-acetyl-transferase gene snaA. To improve provision of l-glutamate as precursor 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase activity was reduced by changing the translational start codon of the chromosomal gene for 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase subunit E1o to the less preferred TTG and by maintaining the inhibitory protein OdhI in its inhibitory form by changing amino acid residue 15 from threonine to alanine. Putrescine-based GABA production by the strains described here led to GABA titers up to 63.2 g L^-1 in fed-batch cultivation at maximum volumetric productivities up to 1.34 g L^-1  h^-1 , the highest volumetric productivity for fermentative GABA production reported to date. Moreover, GABA production from the carbon sources xylose, glucosamine, and N-acetyl-glucosamine that do not have competing uses in the food or feed industries was established. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 862-873. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A new metabolic route for the production of gamma-aminobutyric acid by Corynebacterium glutamicum from glucose

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a non-protein amino acid widespread in nature, is a component of pharmaceuticals, foods, and the biodegradable plastic polyamide 4. Corynebacterium glutamicum shows great potential for the production of GABA from glucose. GABA added to the growth medium hardly affected growth of C. glutamicum, since a half-inhibitory concentration of 1.1 M GABA was determined. As alternative to GABA production by glutamate decarboxylation, a new route for the production of GABA via putrescine was established in C. glutamicum. A putrescine-producing recombinant C. glutamicum strain was converted into a GABA producing strain by heterologous expression of putrescine transaminase (PatA) and gamma-aminobutyraldehyde dehydrogenase (PatD) genes from Escherichia coli. The resultant strain produced 5.3 ± 0.1 g L^-1 of GABA. GABA production was improved further by adjusting the concentration of nitrogen in the culture medium, by avoiding the formation of the by-product N-acetylputrescine and by deletion of the genes for GABA catabolism and GABA re-uptake. GABA accumulation by this strain was increased by 51 % to 8.0 ± 0.3 g L^-1, and the volumetric productivity was increased to 0.31 g L^-1 h^-1; the highest volumetric productivity reported so far for fermentative production of GABA from glucose in shake flasks was achieved.

Engineering cell factories for producing building block chemicals for bio-polymer synthesis

Synthetic polymers are widely used in daily life. Due to increasing environmental concerns related to global warming and the depletion of oil reserves, the development of microbial-based fermentation processes for the production of polymer building block chemicals from renewable resources is desirable to replace current petroleum-based methods. To this end, strains that efficiently produce the target chemicals at high yields and productivity are needed. Recent advances in metabolic engineering have enabled the biosynthesis of polymer compounds at high yield and productivities by governing the carbon flux towards the target chemicals. Using these methods, microbial strains have been engineered to produce monomer chemicals for replacing traditional petroleum-derived aliphatic polymers. These developments also raise the possibility of microbial production of aromatic chemicals for synthesizing high-performance polymers with desirable properties, such as ultraviolet absorbance, high thermal resistance, and mechanical strength. In the present review, we summarize recent progress in metabolic engineering approaches to optimize microbial strains for producing building blocks to synthesize aliphatic and high-performance aromatic polymers.

Exporters for Production of Amino Acids and Other Small Molecules

Microbes are talented catalysts to synthesize valuable small molecules in their cytosol. However, to make full use of their skills - and that of metabolic engineers - the export of intracellularly synthesized molecules to the culture medium has to be considered. This step is as essential as is each step for the synthesis of the favorite molecule of the metabolic engineer, but is frequently not taken into account. To export small molecules via the microbial cell envelope, a range of different types of carrier proteins is recognized to be involved, which are primary active carriers, secondary active carriers, or proteins increasing diffusion. Relevant export may require just one carrier as is the case with L-lysine export by Corynebacterium glutamicum or involve up to four carriers as known for L-cysteine excretion by Escherichia coli. Meanwhile carriers for a number of small molecules of biotechnological interest are recognized, like for production of peptides, nucleosides, diamines, organic acids, or biofuels. In addition to carriers involved in amino acid excretion, such carriers and their impact on product formation are described, as well as the relatedness of export carriers which may serve as a hint to identify further carriers required to improve product formation by engineering export.

Anaerobic growth of Corynebacterium glutamicum via mixed-acid fermentation

Corynebacterium glutamicum, a model organism in microbial biotechnology, is known to metabolize glucose under oxygen-deprived conditions to l-lactate, succinate, and acetate without significant growth. This property is exploited for efficient production of lactate and succinate. Our detailed analysis revealed that marginal growth takes place under anaerobic conditions with glucose, fructose, sucrose, or ribose as a carbon and energy source but not with gluconate, pyruvate, lactate, propionate, or acetate. Supplementation of glucose minimal medium with tryptone strongly enhanced growth up to a final optical density at 600 nm (OD600) of 12, whereas tryptone alone did not allow growth. Amino acids with a high ATP demand for biosynthesis and amino acids of the glutamate family were particularly important for growth stimulation, indicating ATP limitation and a restricted carbon flux into the oxidative tricarboxylic acid cycle toward 2-oxoglutarate. Anaerobic cultivation in a bioreactor with constant nitrogen flushing disclosed that CO2 is required to achieve maximal growth and that the pH tolerance is reduced compared to that under aerobic conditions, reflecting a decreased capability for pH homeostasis. Continued growth under anaerobic conditions indicated the absence of an oxygen-requiring reaction that is essential for biomass formation. The results provide an improved understanding of the physiology of C. glutamicum under anaerobic conditions.

Recent advances in the metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for the production of lactate and succinate from renewable resources

Recent increasing attention to environmental issues and the shortage of oil resources have spurred political and industrial interest in the development of environmental friendly and cost-effective processes for the production of bio-based chemicals from renewable resources. Thus, microbial production of commercially important chemicals is viewed as a desirable way to replace current petrochemical production. Corynebacterium glutamicum, a Gram-positive soil bacterium, is one of the most important industrial microorganisms as a platform for the production of various amino acids. Recent research has explored the use of C. glutamicum as a potential cell factory for producing organic acids such as lactate and succinate, both of which are commercially important bulk chemicals. Here, we summarize current understanding in this field and recent metabolic engineering efforts to develop C. glutamicum strains that efficiently produce l- and d-lactate, and succinate from renewable resources.

Carbon flux analysis by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance to determine the effect of CO2 on anaerobic succinate production by Corynebacterium glutamicum

Wild-type Corynebacterium glutamicum produces a mixture of lactic, succinic, and acetic acids from glucose under oxygen deprivation. We investigated the effect of CO2 on the production of organic acids in a two-stage process: cells were grown aerobically in glucose, and subsequently, organic acid production by nongrowing cells was studied under anaerobic conditions. The presence of CO2 caused up to a 3-fold increase in the succinate yield (1 mol per mol of glucose) and about 2-fold increase in acetate, both at the expense of l-lactate production; moreover, dihydroxyacetone formation was abolished. The redistribution of carbon fluxes in response to CO2 was estimated by using (13)C-labeled glucose and (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis of the labeling patterns in end products. The flux analysis showed that 97% of succinate was produced via the reductive part of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, with the low activity of the oxidative branch being sufficient to provide the reducing equivalents needed for the redox balance. The flux via the pentose phosphate pathway was low (~5%) regardless of the presence or absence of CO2. Moreover, there was significant channeling of carbon to storage compounds (glycogen and trehalose) and concomitant catabolism of these reserves. The intracellular and extracellular pools of lactate and succinate were measured by in vivo NMR, and the stoichiometry (H(+):organic acid) of the respective exporters was calculated. This study shows that it is feasible to take advantage of natural cellular regulation mechanisms to obtain high yields of succinate with C. glutamicum without genetic manipulation.

Proteome response of Corynebacterium glutamicum to high concentration of industrially relevant C₄ and C₅ dicarboxylic acids

More than fifty years of industrial and scientific developments on the amino acid-producer strain Corynebacterium glutamicum has generated an extremely huge knowledge highly applicable to the development of new products. Despite the production of dicarboxylic acids has already been engineered in C. glutamicum, the effect caused by these acids at competitive industrial levels has not yet been described. Thus, aspartic, fumaric, itaconic, malic and succinic acids have been tested on the growth of C. glutamicum to obtain their minimal inhibitory concentrations and their intracellular effects analyzed by 2D-DIGE. This analysis showed the modification of the central metabolism of C. glutamicum, the cross-regulation between malic acid and glucose as well as the aspartic acid utilization as nitrogen source. The analysis of the transcriptional regulators involved in the control of the detected proteins pointed to the ramB gene as a candidate for strain improvement. The analysis of the ΔramB mutant demonstrated its function as an enhancer of the growth speed or resistance level against aspartic, fumaric, itaconic and malic acids in C. glutamicum.

BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The effect of dicarboxylic acids addition to the C. glutamicum culture broth has been described. This proteome response is detailed and the deletion of a global regulator (ramB) has been described as a possible improving method for industrial strains. In addition, the consumption of aspartic acid as nitrogen source has been described for the first time in C. glutamicum, as well as, the cross-regulation between malic acid and glucose through the F0F1 respiratory system.

Engineering of acetate recycling and citrate synthase to improve aerobic succinate production in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Corynebacterium glutamicum lacking the succinate dehydrogenase complex can produce succinate aerobically with acetate representing the major byproduct. Efforts to increase succinate production involved deletion of acetate formation pathways and overexpression of anaplerotic pathways, but acetate formation could not be completely eliminated. To address this issue, we constructed a pathway for recycling wasted carbon in succinate-producing C. glutamicum. The acetyl-CoA synthetase from Bacillus subtilis was heterologously introduced into C. glutamicum for the first time. The engineered strain ZX1 (pEacsA) did not secrete acetate and produced succinate with a yield of 0.50 mol (mol glucose)⁻¹. Moreover, in order to drive more carbon towards succinate biosynthesis, the native citrate synthase encoded by gltA was overexpressed, leading to strain ZX1 (pEacsAgltA), which showed a 22% increase in succinate yield and a 62% decrease in pyruvate yield compared to strain ZX1 (pEacsA). In fed-batch cultivations, strain ZX1 (pEacsAgltA) produced 241 mM succinate with an average volumetric productivity of 3.55 mM h⁻¹ and an average yield of 0.63 mol (mol glucose) ⁻¹, making it a promising platform for the aerobic production of succinate at large scale.

Toward homosuccinate fermentation: metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum for anaerobic production of succinate from glucose and formate

Previous studies have demonstrated the capability of Corynebacterium glutamicum for anaerobic succinate production from glucose under nongrowing conditions. In this work, we have addressed two shortfalls of this process, the formation of significant amounts of by-products and the limitation of the yield by the redox balance. To eliminate acetate formation, a derivative of the type strain ATCC 13032 (strain BOL-1), which lacked all known pathways for acetate and lactate synthesis (Δcat Δpqo Δpta-ackA ΔldhA), was constructed. Chromosomal integration of the pyruvate carboxylase gene pyc(P458S) into BOL-1 resulted in strain BOL-2, which catalyzed fast succinate production from glucose with a yield of 1 mol/mol and showed only little acetate formation. In order to provide additional reducing equivalents derived from the cosubstrate formate, the fdh gene from Mycobacterium vaccae, coding for an NAD(+)-coupled formate dehydrogenase (FDH), was chromosomally integrated into BOL-2, leading to strain BOL-3. In an anaerobic batch process with strain BOL-3, a 20% higher succinate yield from glucose was obtained in the presence of formate. A temporary metabolic blockage of strain BOL-3 was prevented by plasmid-borne overexpression of the glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase gene gapA. In an anaerobic fed-batch process with glucose and formate, strain BOL-3/pAN6-gap accumulated 1,134 mM succinate in 53 h with an average succinate production rate of 1.59 mmol per g cells (dry weight) (cdw) per h. The succinate yield of 1.67 mol/mol glucose is one of the highest currently described for anaerobic succinate producers and was accompanied by a very low level of by-products (0.10 mol/mol glucose).

Efficient aerobic succinate production from glucose in minimal medium with Corynebacterium glutamicum

Corynebacterium glutamicum, an established industrial amino acid producer, has been genetically modified for efficient succinate production from the renewable carbon source glucose under fully aerobic conditions in minimal medium. The initial deletion of the succinate dehydrogenase genes (sdhCAB) led to an accumulation of 4.7 g l⁻¹ (40 mM) succinate as well as high amounts of acetate (125 mM) as by‐product. By deleting genes for all known acetate‐producing pathways (pta‐ackA, pqo and cat) acetate production could be strongly reduced by 83% and succinate production increased up to 7.8 g l⁻¹ (66 mM). Whereas overexpression of the glyoxylate shunt genes (aceA and aceB) or overproduction of the anaplerotic enzyme pyruvate carboxylase (PCx) had only minor effects on succinate production, simultaneous overproduction of pyruvate carboxylase and PEP carboxylase resulted in a strain that produced 9.7 g l⁻¹ (82 mM) succinate with a specific productivity of 1.60 mmol g (cdw)⁻¹ h⁻¹. This value represents the highest productivity among currently described aerobic bacterial succinate producers. Optimization of the production conditions by decoupling succinate production from cell growth using the most advanced producer strain (C. glutamicumΔpqoΔpta‐ackAΔsdhCABΔcat/pAN6‐pyc^P458Sppc) led to an additional increase of the product yield to 0.45 mol succinate mol⁻¹ glucose and a titre of 10.6 g l⁻¹ (90 mM) succinate.

Succinate production in Escherichia coli

Succinate has been recognized as an important platform chemical that can be produced from biomass. While a number of organisms are capable of succinate production naturally, this review focuses on the engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of four-carbon dicarboxylic acid. Important features of a succinate production system are to achieve an optimal balance of reducing equivalents generated by consumption of the feedstock, while maximizing the amount of carbon channeled into the product. Aerobic and anaerobic production strains have been developed and applied to production from glucose and other abundant carbon sources. Metabolic engineering methods and strain evolution have been used and supplemented by the recent application of systems biology and in silico modeling tools to construct optimal production strains. The metabolic capacity of the production strain, the requirement for efficient recovery of succinate, and the reliability of the performance under scaleup are important in the overall process. The costs of the overall biorefinery-compatible process will determine the economic commercialization of succinate and its impact in larger chemical markets.