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Liu YJ, Wang X, Sun Y, Feng Y. Bacterial 5' UTR: A treasure-trove for post-transcriptional regulation. Biotechnol Adv 2025; 78:108478. [PMID: 39551455 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2024.108478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2024] [Revised: 11/08/2024] [Accepted: 11/12/2024] [Indexed: 11/19/2024]
Abstract
In bacteria, where gene transcription and translation occur concurrently, post-transcriptional regulation is acknowledged to be effective and precise. The 5' untranslated regions (5' UTRs) typically harbor diverse post-transcriptional regulatory elements, like riboswitches, RNA thermometers, small RNAs, and upstream open reading frames, that serve to modulate transcription termination, translation initiation, and mRNA stability. Consequently, exploring 5' UTR-derived regulatory elements is vital for synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. Over the past few years, the investigation of successive mechanisms has facilitated the development of various genetic tools from bacterial 5' UTRs. This review consolidates current understanding of 5' UTR regulatory functions, presents recent progress in 5' UTR-element design and screening, updates the tools and regulatory strategies developed, and highlights the challenges and necessity of establishing reliable bioinformatic analysis methods and non-model bacterial chassis in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ya-Jun Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Shandong Engineering Laboratory of Single Cell Oil, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266101, China; Shandong Energy Institute, Qingdao 266101, China; Qingdao New Energy Shandong Laboratory, Qingdao 266101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
| | - Xiaoqing Wang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Shandong Engineering Laboratory of Single Cell Oil, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266101, China; Shandong Energy Institute, Qingdao 266101, China; Qingdao New Energy Shandong Laboratory, Qingdao 266101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Yuman Sun
- CAS Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Shandong Engineering Laboratory of Single Cell Oil, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266101, China; Shandong Energy Institute, Qingdao 266101, China; Qingdao New Energy Shandong Laboratory, Qingdao 266101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Yingang Feng
- CAS Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Shandong Engineering Laboratory of Single Cell Oil, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266101, China; Shandong Energy Institute, Qingdao 266101, China; Qingdao New Energy Shandong Laboratory, Qingdao 266101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
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You J, Wang Y, Wang K, Du Y, Zhang X, Zhang X, Yang T, Pan X, Rao Z. Utilizing 5' UTR Engineering Enables Fine-Tuning of Multiple Genes within Operons to Balance Metabolic Flux in Bacillus subtilis. BIOLOGY 2024; 13:277. [PMID: 38666889 PMCID: PMC11047901 DOI: 10.3390/biology13040277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2024] [Revised: 04/10/2024] [Accepted: 04/15/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024]
Abstract
The application of synthetic biology tools to modulate gene expression to increase yield has been thoroughly demonstrated as an effective and convenient approach in industrial production. In this study, we employed a high-throughput screening strategy to identify a 5' UTR sequence from the genome of B. subtilis 168. This sequence resulted in a 5.8-fold increase in the expression level of EGFP. By utilizing the 5' UTR sequence to overexpress individual genes within the rib operon, it was determined that the genes ribD and ribAB serve as rate-limiting enzymes in the riboflavin synthesis pathway. Constructing a 5' UTR library to regulate EGFP expression resulted in a variation range in gene expression levels exceeding 100-fold. Employing the same 5' UTR library to regulate the expression of EGFP and mCherry within the operon led to a change in the expression ratio of these two genes by over 10,000-fold. So, employing a 5' UTR library to modulate the expression of the rib operon gene and construct a synthetic rib operon resulted in a 2.09-fold increase in riboflavin production. These results indicate that the 5' UTR sequence identified and characterized in this study can serve as a versatile synthetic biology toolkit for achieving complex metabolic network reconstruction. This toolkit can facilitate the fine-tuning of gene expression to produce target products.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiajia You
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of the Ministry of Education, Laboratory of Applied Microorganisms and Metabolic Engineering, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; (J.Y.); (K.W.); (Y.D.); (X.Z.); (X.Z.); (T.Y.)
- Yixing Institute of Food and Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Yixing 214200, China
| | - Yifan Wang
- Department of Food Science and Technology, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA;
| | - Kang Wang
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of the Ministry of Education, Laboratory of Applied Microorganisms and Metabolic Engineering, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; (J.Y.); (K.W.); (Y.D.); (X.Z.); (X.Z.); (T.Y.)
| | - Yuxuan Du
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of the Ministry of Education, Laboratory of Applied Microorganisms and Metabolic Engineering, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; (J.Y.); (K.W.); (Y.D.); (X.Z.); (X.Z.); (T.Y.)
| | - Xiaoling Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of the Ministry of Education, Laboratory of Applied Microorganisms and Metabolic Engineering, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; (J.Y.); (K.W.); (Y.D.); (X.Z.); (X.Z.); (T.Y.)
| | - Xian Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of the Ministry of Education, Laboratory of Applied Microorganisms and Metabolic Engineering, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; (J.Y.); (K.W.); (Y.D.); (X.Z.); (X.Z.); (T.Y.)
| | - Taowei Yang
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of the Ministry of Education, Laboratory of Applied Microorganisms and Metabolic Engineering, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; (J.Y.); (K.W.); (Y.D.); (X.Z.); (X.Z.); (T.Y.)
| | - Xuewei Pan
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of the Ministry of Education, Laboratory of Applied Microorganisms and Metabolic Engineering, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; (J.Y.); (K.W.); (Y.D.); (X.Z.); (X.Z.); (T.Y.)
| | - Zhiming Rao
- Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology of the Ministry of Education, Laboratory of Applied Microorganisms and Metabolic Engineering, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; (J.Y.); (K.W.); (Y.D.); (X.Z.); (X.Z.); (T.Y.)
- Yixing Institute of Food and Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Yixing 214200, China
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