Construction and characterization of a novel maltose inducible expression vector in Bacillus subtilis

Bacillus subtilis as a host for natural product discovery and engineering of biosynthetic gene clusters

Covering: up to October 2023Many bioactive natural products are synthesized by microorganisms that are either difficult or impossible to cultivate under laboratory conditions, or that produce only small amounts of the desired compound. By transferring biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) into alternative host organisms that are more easily cultured and engineered, larger quantities can be obtained and new analogues with potentially improved biological activity or other desirable properties can be generated. Moreover, expression of cryptic BGCs in a suitable host can facilitate the identification and characterization of novel natural products. Heterologous expression therefore represents a valuable tool for natural product discovery and engineering as it allows the study and manipulation of their biosynthetic pathways in a controlled setting, enabling innovative applications. Bacillus is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria that is widely used in industrial biotechnology as a host for the production of proteins from diverse origins, including enzymes and vaccines. However, despite numerous successful examples, Bacillus species remain underexploited as heterologous hosts for the expression of natural product BGCs. Here, we review important advantages that Bacillus species offer as expression hosts, such as high secretion capacity, natural competence for DNA uptake, and the increasing availability of a wide range of genetic tools for gene expression and strain engineering. We evaluate different strain optimization strategies and other critical factors that have improved the success and efficiency of heterologous natural product biosynthesis in B. subtilis. Finally, future perspectives for using B. subtilis as a heterologous host are discussed, identifying research gaps and promising areas that require further exploration.

Construction of recombinant Lactococcus expressing thymosin and interferon fusion protein and its application as an immune adjuvant

BACKGROUND

In recent years, biosafety and green food safety standards have increased the demand for immune enhancers and adjuvants. In the present study, recombinant food-grade Lactococcus lactis (r-L. lactis-Tα1-IFN) expressing thymosin Tα1 and chicken interferon fusion protein was constructed.

RESULTS

The in vitro interactions with macrophages revealed a mixture of recombinant r-L. lactis-Tα1-IFN could significantly activate both macrophage J774-Dual™ NF-κB and interferon regulator (IRF) signaling pathways. In vitro interactions with chicken peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) demonstrated that a mixture of recombinant r-L. lactis-Tα1-IFN significantly enhanced the expression levels of interferon (IFN)-γ, interleukin (IL)-10, CD80, and CD86 proteins in chicken PBMCs. Animal experiments displayed that injecting a lysis mixture of recombinant r-L. lactis-Tα1-IFN could significantly activate the proliferation of T cells and antigen-presenting cells in chicken PBMCs. Moreover, 16S analysis of intestinal microbiota demonstrated that injection of the lysis mixture of recombinant r-L. lactis-Tα1-IFN could significantly improve the structure and composition of chicken intestinal microbiota, with a significant increase in probiotic genera, such as Lactobacillus spp. Results of animal experiments using the lysis mixture of recombinant r-L. lactis-Tα1-IFN as an immune adjuvant for inactivated chicken Newcastle disease vaccine showed that the serum antibody titers of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the vaccine control group, and the expression levels of cytokines IFN-γ and IL-2 were significantly higher than those of the vaccine control group.

CONCLUSION

These results indicate that food-safe recombinant r-L. lactis-Tα1-IFN has potential as a vaccine immune booster and immune adjuvant. This study lays the foundation for the development of natural green novel animal immune booster or immune adjuvant.

A sweet new set of inducible and constitutive promoters in Haloferax volcanii

Inducible promoters are one of cellular and molecular biology's most important technical tools. The ability to deplete, replete, and overexpress genes on demand is the foundation of most functional studies. Here, we developed and characterized a new xylose-responsive promoter (Pxyl), the second inducible promoter system for the model haloarcheon Haloferax volcanii. Generating RNA-seq datasets from cultures in the presence of four historically used inducers (arabinose, xylose, maltose, and IPTG), we mapped upregulated genomic regions primarily repressed in the absence of the above inducers. We found a highly upregulated promoter that controls the expression of the xacEA (HVO_B0027-28) operon in the pHV3 chromosome. To characterize this promoter region, we cloned msfGFP (monomeric superfold green fluorescent protein) under the control of two upstream regions into a modified pTA962 vector: the first 250 bp (P250) and the whole 750 bp intergenic fragments (P750). The P250 sequence drove the expression of msfGFP constitutively, and its expression did not respond to the presence or absence of xylose. However, the P750 promoter showed not only to be repressed in the absence of xylose but also expressed higher levels of msfGFP than the previously described inducible promoter PtnaA in the presence of the inducer. Finally, we validated the inducible Pxyl promoter by reproducing morphological phenotypes already described in the literature. By overexpressing the tubulin-like FtsZ1 and FtsZ2, we observed similar but slightly more pronounced morphological defects than the tryptophan-inducible promoter PtnaA. FtsZ1 overexpression created larger, deformed cells, whereas cells overexpressing FtsZ2 were smaller but mostly retained their shape. In summary, this work contributes a new xylose-inducible promoter that could be used simultaneously with the well-established PtnaA in functional studies in H. volcanii in the future.

Potent IPTG-inducible integrative expression vectors for production of recombinant proteins in Bacillus subtilis

The IPTG-inducible promoter family, Pgrac, allows high protein expression levels in an inducible manner. In this study, we constructed IPTG-inducible expression vectors containing strong Pgrac promoters that allow integration of the transgene at either the amyE or lacA locus or both loci in Bacillus subtilis. Our novel integrative expression vectors based on Pgrac promoters could control the repression of protein production in the absence and the induction in the presence of an inducer, IPTG. The β-galactosidase (BgaB) protein levels were 9.0%, 15% and 30% of the total cellular protein in the B. subtilis strains carrying single cassettes with the Pgrac01, Pgrac100 or Pgrac212 promoters, respectively. The maximal induction ratio of Pgrac01-bgaB was 35.5 while that of Pgrac100-bgaB was 7.5 and that of Pgrac212-bgaB was 9. The inducible expression of GFP and BgaB protein was stably maintained for 24 h, with the highest yield of GFP being 24% of cell total protein while the maximum amount of BgaB was found to be 38%. A dual integration of two copies of the gfp⁺ gene into the B. subtilis genome at the lacA and amyE loci resulted in a yield of about 40% of total cellular protein and a 1.74-fold increase in GFP compared with single-integrated strains containing the same Pgrac212 promoter. The capability of protein production from low to high levels of these inducible integrative systems is useful for fundamental and applied research in B. subtilis.

Development of a Glycerol-Inducible Expression System for High-Yield Heterologous Protein Production in Bacillus subtilis

The development of efficient, low-cost, and robust expression systems is important for the mass production of proteins and natural products in large amounts using cell factories. Glycerol is an ideal carbon source for large-scale fermentation due to its low cost and favorable maintenance of the fermentation process. Here, we used the antiterminator protein GlpP and its target promoter P_glpD to construct a highly efficient glycerol-inducible expression system (GIES) in Bacillus subtilis. This system was able to express heterologous genes in an autoinducible manner based on the sequential utilization of glucose and glycerol under the regulation of carbon catabolite repression. In such a system, the concentration of glycerol regulated the strength of gene expression, and the concentration of glucose affected both the timing of induction and the strength of gene expression. By enhancing GlpP, the GIES was further strengthened for high-level intracellular expression of aspartase and secretory expression of nattokinase. High yields of nattokinase in a 5-L fermenter through batch and fed-batch fermentation demonstrated the potential to apply the GIES for large-scale enzyme production. Through the evolution of the -10 box of P_glpD, mutants with gradient activities were obtained. In addition, hybrid glycerol-inducible promoters were successfully constructed by combining the constitutive promoters and the 5' untranslated region of P_glpD. Collectively, this study developed a GIES to obtain high-value products from inexpensive glycerol. More importantly, the great potential of the pair of inherent terminator and antiterminator protein as a portable biological tool for various purposes in synthetic biology is proposed. IMPORTANCE In this study, a GIES was constructed in B. subtilis by employing the antiterminator protein GlpP and the GlpP-regulated promoter P_glpD. Based on the sequential utilization of glucose and glycerol by B. subtilis, the GIES was able to express genes in an autoinducible manner. The amounts and ratio of glucose and glycerol can regulate the gene induction timing and expression strength. The GIES was further applied for high yields of nattokinase, and its robustness in production scale-up was confirmed in a 5-L fermenter. The high-level expression of heterologous proteins demonstrated the huge application potential of the GIES. Furthermore, mutants of P_glpD with gradient activities and hybrid glycerol-inducible promoters were obtained through the evolution of the -10 box of P_glpD and the combination of the constitutive promoters and the 5' untranslated region of P_glpD, respectively. These results demonstrated the use of the antiterminator protein as a regulator for various purposes in synthetic biology.

Optimal Secretory Expression of Acetaldehyde Dehydrogenase from Issatchenkia terricola in Bacillus subtilis through a Combined Strategy

Acetaldehyde dehydrogenases are potential enzyme preparations that can be used to detoxify acetaldehyde and other exogenous aldehydes from pharmaceuticals, food, and biofuel production. In this study, we enhanced the expression of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase sourced from Issatchenkia terricola (istALDH) in Bacillus subtilis using a combinatorial strategy for the optimization of signal peptides, promoters, and growth conditions. First, a library of various signal peptides was constructed to identify the optimal signal peptides for efficient istALDH secretion. The signal peptide yqzG achieved the highest extracellular istALDH activity (204.85 ± 3.31 U/mL). Second, the aprE promoter was replaced by a constitutive promoter (i.e., P43) and an inducible promoter (i.e., Pglv), resulting in 12.40% and 19.97% enhanced istALDH, respectively. Furthermore, the tandem promoter P43-Pglv provided a better performance, resulting in 30.96% enhanced istALDH activity. Third, the production of istALDH was optimized by testing one factor at a time. Physical parameters were optimized including the inducer (e.g., maltose) concentrations, incubation temperatures, and inoculation amounts, and the results were 2.0%, 35 °C, and 2.0%, respectively. The optimized medium results were 2.0% glucose, 1.5% peptone, 2.5% yeast extract, 1% NaCl, and 0.5% (NH₄)₂SO₄. The extracellular istALDH activity was 331.19 ± 4.19 U/mL, yielding the highest production reported in the literature to date.

Trehalose Production Using Recombinant Trehalose Synthase in Bacillus subtilis by Integrating Fermentation and Biocatalysis

Trehalose, a stable nonreducing disaccharide, protects biomolecules against environmental stress. However, trehalose production using secretory trehalose synthase (TreS) by Bacillus subtilis has not been well studied. In this study, a mutant TreS was successfully secreted and expressed in B. subtilis WB800N. The extracellular enzyme activity of TreS regulated by the P₄₃ promoter and SP_PhoD signal peptide in recombinant B. subtilis WB800N reached 23080.6 ± 1119.4 U/L in a 5-L fermenter after optimizing the culture medium, while xpF, skfA, lytC, and sdpC were knocked out. To reduce maltose consumption, malP and amyE corresponding to maltose transporters were further deleted. To simplify the trehalose production process, we invented a fermentation-coupling biocatalysis process involving recombinant bacteria fermentation to secrete TreS and simultaneous conversion of maltose to trehalose by TreS and found that the conversion rate of maltose to trehalose reached 75.5%, suggesting that this is an efficient strategy for large-scale trehalose production using recombinant B. subtilis.

Saturation mutagenesis and self-inducible expression of trehalose synthase in Bacillus subtilis

Trehalose is a nonreducing disaccharide synthesized by trehalose synthase (TreS), which catalyzes the reversible interconversion of maltose and trehalose. We aimed to enhance the catalytic conversion of maltose to trehalose by saturation mutagenesis, and constructed a self-inducible TreS expression system by generating a robust Bacillus subtilis recombinant. We found that the conversion yield and enzymatic activity of TreS was enhanced by saturation mutations, especially by the combination of V407M and K490L mutations. At the same time, these saturation mutations were contributing to reducing by-products in the reaction. Compared to WT TreS, the conversion yield of maltose to trehalose was increased by 11.9%, and the k_cat /K_m toward trehalose was 1.33 times higher in the reaction catalyzed by treS^V407M-K490L . treS^V407M-K490L expression was further observed in the recombinant B. subtilis W800N(Δσ^F ) under the influence of P_srfA , P_cry3Aa , and P_srfA-cry3Aa promoters without an inducer. It was shown that P_srfA-cry3Aa was evidently a stronger promoter for treS^V407M-K490L expression, with the intracellular enzymatic activity of recombinant treS^V407M-K490L being over 5,800 U/g at 35 hr in TB medium. These results suggested the combination of two mutations, V407M and K490L, was conducive for the production of trehalose. In addition, the self-inducible TreS^V407M/K490L mutant in the B. subtilis host provides a low-cost choice for the industrial production of endotoxin-free trehalose with high yields.

Improved Expression and Optimization of Trehalose Synthase by Regulation of Pglv in Bacillus subtilis

Trehalose synthase (TreS) converts maltose to trehalose, which has several important functions; therefore, enhancing TreS expression is desirable. Here, a recombinant Bacillus subtilis W800N (ΔamyE)-P_glv strain was constructed to achieve enhanced expression of TreS. Process optimization strategies were developed to improve the expression level of TreS in B. subtilis W800N (ΔamyE)-P_glv. Intracellular activity of TreS was induced using 60 g/L of maltose in shake flask culture. The protein activity reached 5211 ± 134 U/g at 33 °C and pH 7.0 in Luria-Bertani medium. A fed-batch fermentation strategy was applied in a 30 L fermenter containing 18 L terrific broth to achieve high cell density by replacing glycerol with high maltose syrup as a carbon source and an inducer. After 32 h of fermentation, recombinant B. subtilis W800N (ΔamyE)-P_glv activity reached 6850 ± 287 U/g dry cell weight. Our results demonstrate the efficiency of the P_glv promoter in increasing the expression of TreS in B. subtilis W800N (ΔamyE)-P_glv.

High-Efficiency Secretion of β-Mannanase in Bacillus subtilis through Protein Synthesis and Secretion Optimization

The manno endo-1,4-mannosidase (β-mannanase, EC. 3.2.1.78) catalyzes the random hydrolysis of internal (1 → 4)-β-mannosidic linkages in the mannan polymers. A codon optimized β-mannanase gene from Bacillus licheniformis DSM13 was expressed in Bacillus subtilis. When four Sec-dependent and two Tat-dependent signal peptide sequences cloned from B. subtilis were placed upstream of the target gene, the highest activity of β-mannanase was observed using SP_lipA as a signal peptide. Then a 1.25-fold activity of β-mannanase was obtained when another copy of groESL operon was inserted into the genome of host strain. Finally, five different promoters were separately used to enhance the synthesis of the target protein. The results showed that promoter P_mglv, a modified maltose-inducible promoter, significantly elevated the production of β-mannanase. After 72 h of flask fermentation, the enzyme activity of β-mannanase in the supernatant when using locust bean gum as substrate reached 2207 U/mL. This work provided a promising β-mannanase production strain in industrial application.

Efficient biosynthesis of a Cecropin A-melittin mutant in Bacillus subtilis WB700

The efficient production of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) for clinical applications has attracted the attention of the scientific community. To develop a novel microbial cell factory for the efficient biosynthesis of a cecropin A-melittin mutant (CAM-W), a recombinant Bacillus subtilis WB700 expression system was genetically modified with a novel vector, including a fusion gene encoding CAM-W, the autoprotease EDDIE and the signal peptide SacB under the control of the maltose-inducible promoter P_glv. A total of 159 mg of CAM-W was obtained from 1 L of fermentation supernatant. The purified CAM-W showed a consistent size with the expected molecular weight of 3.2 kDa. Our findings suggest that this novel expression system can be used as a powerful tool for the efficient production of CAM-W.

Introduction of the exogenous NADH coenzyme regeneration system and its influence on intracellular metabolic flux of Paenibacillus polymyxa

The NAD(+)-dependent formate dehydrogenase (FDH) gene from Candida boidinii was introduced into Paenibacillus polymyxa ZJ-9. The effects of this exogenous gene on the growth of the recombinant strain P. polymyxa XG-1, FDH activity, intracellular NADH and NAD(+) level and the synthesis of R,R-2,3-butanediol (R,R-2,3-BD) were determined. Results from the fermentation in the 7.5L bioreactor showed that the exogenous FDH was highly expressed in the recombinant strain. The titers of NADH, lactic acid, ethanol, NADH/NAD(+), and CO2 excretion rate (CER) of the recombinant strain increased considerably, while acetoin and formic acid decreased significantly. The highest titers of R,R-2,3-BD by the recombinant strain in batch and fed-batch fermentation were 36.8g/L and 51.3g/L, increased 10.2% and 8.0% compared with the parent strain, respectively. This study confirmed that coenzyme regeneration system can manipulate substance metabolism in bacteria, and is an efficient way for promoting the synthesis of NADH-dependent products.

Nitrilase Expression and Surface Display on Spores

Nitrilases are an important class of industrial enzymes. They require mild reaction conditions and are highly efficient and environmentally friendly, so they are used to catalyze the synthesis of carboxylic acid from nitrile, a process considered superior to conventional chemical syntheses. Nitrilases should be immobilized to overcome difficulties in recovery after the reaction and to stabilize the free enzyme. The nitrilase from<i> Clostridium thermocellum</i> was expressed, identified and displayed on the surface of <i>Bacillus subtilis </i>spores by using the spore coat protein G of <i>B. subtilis </i>as an anchoring motif. In a free state, the recombinant nitrilase catalyzed the conversion of 3-cyanopyridine to niacin and displayed maximum catalytic activity (8.22 units/mg protein) at 40°C and pH 7.4. SDS-PAGE and Western blot were used to confirm nitrilase display. Compared with the free enzyme, the spore-immobilized nitrilase showed a higher tolerance for adverse environmental conditions. After the reaction, recombinant spores were recovered via centrifugation and reused 3 times to catalyze the conversion of 3-cyanopyridine with 75.3% nitrilase activity. This study demonstrates an effective means of nitrilase immobilization via spore surface display, which can be applied in biological processes or conversion.

Expression of plectasin in Bacillus subtilis using SUMO technology by a maltose-inducible vector

Plectasin, the first fungus defensin, is especially efficient against Gram-positive bacteria. To explore an effective approach for expressing plectasin in Bacillus subtilis, the sequence encoding plectasin fused with the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) gene, the 6 × His gene and the signal peptide of SacB were cloned into an E. coli-B. subtilis shuttle vector pGJ148 in which the maltose utilization operon promoter Pglv directed the expression. The fusion protein successfully secreted in culture and approximately, 41 mg of the recombinant fusion protein SUMO-plectasin was purified per liter of culture supernatant. After purification by Ni-NTA resin column and digestion by SUMO protease, 5.5 mg of plectasin with a purity of 94 % was obtained from 1 L fermentation culture. Recombinant plectasin was found inhibition activity against S. pneumoniae, S. aureus and S. epidermidis. These results indicate that the maltose-induced expression system may be a safe and efficient way for the large-scale production of soluble peptides in B. subtilis.

Improved production of sublancin via introduction of three characteristic promoters into operon clusters responsible for this novel distinct glycopeptide biosynthesis

Background

Sublancin is a novel and distinct antimicrobial glycopeptide that can be used as an alternative to conventional antibiotics. The reported production of sublancin by Bacillus subtilis 168 is poor because transcriptional regulatory circuit of sunA, a gene that encodes presublancin, is complex and difficult to control.

Results

A strong inducible and easy to control vegetative σ^A promoter of P_glv was introduced to replace that of sunA in situ in B. subtilis 1A747 [SPβc, prototroph, the derivative of B. subtilis 168 (trpC2)]. Meanwhile, other two strong promoters of P43 and P_luxS were respectively placed before sunI and sunT–bdbA–sunS–bdbB, encoding five functional proteins that involved in the biosynthesis of mature sublancin. 642 mg sublancin was obtained from 1 L culture supernatant of recombinant B. subtilis 1A747 strains. Analysises of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and circular dichroism spectrum showed that mature sublancin had a molecular weight of 3877.642 Da and displayed a α–helical conformation that are consistent with reported results. In addition, the mature sublancin was proved to be a potent antimicrobial glycopeptide with broad activity spectrum, moderate cytotoxicity and good conditional stability under high temperature, extreme pH and protease–rich environments, thus showing its potential for clinical applications.

Conclusions

Our present findings suggest that recombinant B. subtilis 1A747 strains can effectively and efficiently biosynthesize mature sublancin. The replacement of native promoters provides an extra method for production improvement of some other complicated peptides such as nisin and subtilin.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12934-015-0201-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Generation of an artificial double promoter for protein expression in Bacillus subtilis through a promoter trap system

Bacillus subtilis is an attractive host for production of recombinant proteins. Promoters and expression plasmid backbones have direct impacts on the efficiency of gene expression. To screen and isolate strong promoters, a promoter trap vector pShuttleF was developed in this study. Using the vector, approximately 1000 colonies containing likely promoters from Bacillus licheniformis genomic DNA were obtained. Amongst them, pShuttle-09 exhibited the highest β-Gal activities in both Escherichia coli and B. subtilis. The activity of pShuttle-09 in B. subtilis was eight times of that of the P43 promoter, a commonly used strong promoter for B. subtilis. A sequence analysis showed that pShuttle-09 contained P_luxS and truncated luxS in-frame fused with the reporter gene as well as another fragment upstream of P_luxS containing a putative promoter. This putative promoter was a hybrid promoter and its β-Gal activity was higher than P_luxS. Reconstructing the hybrid promoter from pShuttle-09 to P_lapS further improved the β-Gal production by 60%. The usefulness of our promoter trap system is likely due to random shuffling and recombination of DNA fragments and adoption of a rapid and high-throughput screening. Thus, our data provide additional evidence to support the concept of using a promoter trap system to create new promoters.

Regulation of mtl operon promoter of Bacillus subtilis: requirements of its use in expression vectors

Background

Several vector systems have been developed to express any gene desired to be studied in Bacillus subtilis. Among them, the transcriptionally regulated promoters involved in carbohydrate utilization are a research priority. Expression systems based on Bacillus promoters for xylose, maltose, and mannose utilization, as well as on the heterologous E. coli lactose promoter, have been successfully constructed. The promoter of the mtlAFD operon for utilization of mannitol is another promising candidate for its use in expression vectors. In this study, we investigated the regulation of the mtl genes in order to identify the elements needed to construct a strong mannitol inducible expression system in B. subtilis.

Results

Regulation of the promoters of mtlAFD operon (P_mtlA) and mtlR (P_mtlR) encoding the activator were investigated by fusion to lacZ. Identification of the P_mtlA and P_mtlR transcription start sites revealed the σ^A like promoter structures. Also, the operator of P_mtlA was determined by shortening, nucleotide exchange, and alignment of P_mtlA and P_mtlR operator regions. Deletion of the mannitol-specific PTS genes (mtlAF) resulted in P_mtlA constitutive expression demonstrating the inhibitory effect of EIICB^Mtl and EIIA^Mtl on MtlR in the absence of mannitol. Disruption of mtlD made the cells sensitive to mannitol and glucitol. Both P_mtlA and P_mtlR were influenced by carbon catabolite repression (CCR). However, a CcpA deficient mutant showed only a slight reduction in P_mtlR catabolite repression. Similarly, using P_groE as a constitutive promoter, putative cre sites of P_mtlA and P_mtlR slightly reduced the promoter activity in the presence of glucose. In contrast, glucose repression of P_mtlA and P_mtlR was completely abolished in a ΔptsG mutant and significantly reduced in a MtlR (H342D) mutant.

Conclusions

The mtl operon promoter (P_mtlA) is a strong promoter that reached a maximum of 13,000 Miller units with lacZ as a reporter on low copy plasmids. It is tightly regulated by just one copy of the mtlR gene on the chromosome and subject to CCR. CCR can be switched off by mutations in MtlR and the glucose transporter. These properties and the low costs of the inducers, i.e. mannitol and glucitol, make the promoter ideal for designing regulated expression systems.

Production of N-acetyl-D-neuraminic acid by use of an efficient spore surface display system

Production of N-acetyl-D-neuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) via biocatalysis is traditionally conducted using isolated enzymes or whole cells. The use of isolated enzymes is restricted by the time-consuming purification process, whereas the application of whole cells is limited by the permeability barrier presented by the microbial cell membrane. In this study, a novel type of biocatalyst, Neu5Ac aldolase presented on the surface of Bacillus subtilis spores, was used for the production of Neu5Ac. Under optimal conditions, Neu5Ac at a high concentration (54.7 g liter⁻¹) and a high yield (90.2%) was obtained under a 5-fold excess of pyruvate over N-acetyl-D-mannosamine. The novel biocatalyst system, which is able to express and immobilize the target enzyme simultaneously on the surface of B. subtilis spores, represents a suitable alternative for value-added chemical production.

Development of a Bacillus subtilis expression system using the improved Pglv promoter

Background

B. subtilis is an important organism in the biotechnological application. The efficient expression system is desirable in production of recombinant gene products in B. subtilis. Recently, we developed a new inducible expression system in B. subtilis, which directed by B. subtilis maltose utilization operon promoter P_glv. The system demonstrated high-level expression for target proteins in B. subtilis when induced by maltose. However, the system was markedly repressed by glucose. This limited the application of the system as a high-expression tool in biotechnology field. The aim of this study was to further improve the P_glv promoter system and enhance its expression strength.

Results

Here, site-directed mutagenesis was facilitated to enhance the expression strength of P_glv. The transcription level from four mutants was increased. Production of β-Gal from the mutants reached the maximum 1.8 times as high as that of wildtype promoter. When induced by 5% maltose, the production of β-Gal from two mutants reached 14.3 U/ml and 13.8 U/ml, 63.5% and 57.5% higher than wildtype promoter (8.8 U/ml) respectively. Thus, site-directed mutagenesis alleviated the repression of glucose and improved the expression activity. To further improve the promoter system, the B. subtilis expression host was reconstructed, in which B. subtilis well-characterized constitutive promoter P43 replaced the promoter of the glv operon in B. subtilis chromosome through a double crossover event. The β-galactosidase production from the improved system (21.1 U/mL) increased compared to that from origin system. Meanwhile, the repression caused by glucose was further alleviated.

Conclusions

In this study, we obtained a mutated promoter Pglv-M1 through site-directed mutagenesis, which demonstrated high expression strength and alleviated the repression caused by glucose. Moreover, we alleviated the repression and enhanced the expression activity of the Pglv-M1 promoter system via reconstruction of the B. subtilis host. Thus, we provided a valuable expression system in B. subtilis.

Development and application of a novel signal peptide probe vector with PGA as reporter in Bacillus subtilis WB700: twenty-four tat pathway signal peptides from Bacillus subtilis were monitored

In this study, we have developed a novel, versatile signal peptide probe vector driven by promoter P43 in Bacillus subtilis WB700, using Penicillin G Acylase (PGA) as reporter. Twenty-four signal peptides considered belonging to twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway were cloned into the probe vector to direct the secretion expression of PGA, respectively. Through 6-nitro-3-phenylacetamidobenzoic acid (NIPAB) filter paper assay, four signal peptides (AmyX, AlbB, LipA, and YmzC) were chosen for further investigation. The extracellular production of PGA demonstrated that these recombinants mediated efficient secretion expression in B. subtilis WB700, in which the maximum activity reached 0.11, 0.21, 0.08, and 0.26 U/mL, respectively. Thus, we provided an efficient tool for easy detection of the signal peptides in B. subtilis, and demonstrated the efficiency of Tat pathway signal peptides via PGA secretion in B. subtilis WB700.

Characterization of two temperature-inducible promoters newly isolated from B. subtilis

Here, two temperature sensitive promoters, P2 and P7, isolated from Bacillus subtilis, were characterized. The production of beta-galactosidase driven by these promoters was much higher at 45 degrees C than that at 37 degrees C both in Escherichia coli and B. subtilis and that the P2 promoter showed higher expression strength in B. subtilis at 45 degrees C. Thereby, an efficient temperature-inducible expression system was constructed by using P2 promoter in B. subtilis. Thus, we isolated and characterized a newly temperature inducible promoter and exploited it as a potential expression element in B. subtilis.

Assay and characterization of a strong promoter element from B. subtilis

A new strong promoter fragment isolated from Bacillus subtilis was identified and characterized. Using the heat stable beta-galactosidase as reporter, the promoter fragment exhibited high expression strength both in Escherichia coli and B. subtilis. The typical prokaryotic promoter conservation regions were found in the promoter fragment and the putative promoter was identified as the control element of yxiE gene via sequencing assay and predication of promoter. To further verify and characterize the cloned strong promoter, the putative promoter was sub-cloned and the beta-Gal directed by the promoters was high-level expressed both in E. coli and B. subtilis. By means of the isolated promoter, an efficient expression system was developed in B. subtilis and the benefit and usefulness was demonstrated through expression of three heterologous and homogenous proteins. Thus, we identified a newly strong promoter of B. subtilis and provided a robust expression system for genetic engineering of B. subtilis.