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Guan A, He Z, Wang X, Jia ZJ, Qin J. Engineering the next-generation synthetic cell factory driven by protein engineering. Biotechnol Adv 2024; 73:108366. [PMID: 38663492 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2024.108366] [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: 11/02/2023] [Revised: 03/21/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/09/2024]
Abstract
Synthetic cell factory offers substantial advantages in economically efficient production of biofuels, chemicals, and pharmaceutical compounds. However, to create a high-performance synthetic cell factory, precise regulation of cellular material and energy flux is essential. In this context, protein components including enzymes, transcription factor-based biosensors and transporters play pivotal roles. Protein engineering aims to create novel protein variants with desired properties by modifying or designing protein sequences. This review focuses on summarizing the latest advancements of protein engineering in optimizing various aspects of synthetic cell factory, including: enhancing enzyme activity to eliminate production bottlenecks, altering enzyme selectivity to steer metabolic pathways towards desired products, modifying enzyme promiscuity to explore innovative routes, and improving the efficiency of transporters. Furthermore, the utilization of protein engineering to modify protein-based biosensors accelerates evolutionary process and optimizes the regulation of metabolic pathways. The remaining challenges and future opportunities in this field are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ailin Guan
- College of Biomass Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
| | - Zixi He
- College of Biomass Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
| | - Xin Wang
- West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Zhi-Jun Jia
- West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Jiufu Qin
- College of Biomass Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.
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Deng H, Yu H, Deng Y, Qiu Y, Li F, Wang X, He J, Liang W, Lan Y, Qiao L, Zhang Z, Zhang Y, Keasling JD, Luo X. Pathway Evolution Through a Bottlenecking-Debottlenecking Strategy and Machine Learning-Aided Flux Balancing. ADVANCED SCIENCE (WEINHEIM, BADEN-WURTTEMBERG, GERMANY) 2024; 11:e2306935. [PMID: 38321783 PMCID: PMC11005738 DOI: 10.1002/advs.202306935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Revised: 12/24/2023] [Indexed: 02/08/2024]
Abstract
The evolution of pathway enzymes enhances the biosynthesis of high-value chemicals, crucial for pharmaceutical, and agrochemical applications. However, unpredictable evolutionary landscapes of pathway genes often hinder successful evolution. Here, the presence of complex epistasis is identifued within the representative naringenin biosynthetic pathway enzymes, hampering straightforward directed evolution. Subsequently, a biofoundry-assisted strategy is developed for pathway bottlenecking and debottlenecking, enabling the parallel evolution of all pathway enzymes along a predictable evolutionary trajectory in six weeks. This study then utilizes a machine learning model, ProEnsemble, to further balance the pathway by optimizing the transcription of individual genes. The broad applicability of this strategy is demonstrated by constructing an Escherichia coli chassis with evolved and balanced pathway genes, resulting in 3.65 g L-1 naringenin. The optimized naringenin chassis also demonstrates enhanced production of other flavonoids. This approach can be readily adapted for any given number of enzymes in the specific metabolic pathway, paving the way for automated chassis construction in contemporary biofoundries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huaxiang Deng
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- The Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of BiotechnologyJiangnan UniversityWuxi214122P. R. China
| | - Han Yu
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing100049P. R. China
| | - Yanwu Deng
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
| | - Yulan Qiu
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
| | - Feifei Li
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
| | - Xinran Wang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
| | - Jiahui He
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
| | - Weiyue Liang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- The Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of BiotechnologyJiangnan UniversityWuxi214122P. R. China
| | - Yunquan Lan
- Shenzhen Infrastructure for Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
| | - Longjiang Qiao
- Shenzhen Infrastructure for Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
| | - Zhiyu Zhang
- Shenzhen Infrastructure for Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
| | - Yunfeng Zhang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
| | - Jay D. Keasling
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Joint BioEnergy InstituteEmeryvilleCA94608USA
- Biological Systems and Engineering DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCA94720USA
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering & Department of BioengineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
- Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for BiosustainabilityTechnical University of DenmarkKgs. Lyngby2800Denmark
| | - Xiaozhou Luo
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory for the Intelligent Microbial Manufacturing of Medicines, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Quantitative Engineering Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- Center for Synthetic Biochemistry, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
- University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing100049P. R. China
- Shenzhen Infrastructure for Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced TechnologyChinese Academy of SciencesShenzhen518055P. R. China
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Zimmermann A, Prieto-Vivas JE, Voordeckers K, Bi C, Verstrepen KJ. Mutagenesis techniques for evolutionary engineering of microbes - exploiting CRISPR-Cas, oligonucleotides, recombinases, and polymerases. Trends Microbiol 2024:S0966-842X(24)00046-5. [PMID: 38493013 DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2024.02.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2023] [Revised: 02/07/2024] [Accepted: 02/09/2024] [Indexed: 03/18/2024]
Abstract
The natural process of evolutionary adaptation is often exploited as a powerful tool to obtain microbes with desirable traits. For industrial microbes, evolutionary engineering is often used to generate variants that show increased yields or resistance to stressful industrial environments, thus obtaining superior microbial cell factories. However, even in large populations, the natural supply of beneficial mutations is typically low, which implies that obtaining improved microbes is often time-consuming and inefficient. To overcome this limitation, different techniques have been developed that boost mutation rates. While some of these methods simply increase the overall mutation rate across a genome, others use recent developments in DNA synthesis, synthetic biology, and CRISPR-Cas techniques to control the type and location of mutations. This review summarizes the most important recent developments and methods in the field of evolutionary engineering in model microorganisms. It discusses how both in vitro and in vivo approaches can increase the genetic diversity of the host, with a special emphasis on in vivo techniques for the optimization of metabolic pathways for precision fermentation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Zimmermann
- VIB Laboratory for Systems Biology, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Leuven, 3001, Belgium; CMPG Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics, Department M2S, KU Leuven, Leuven, 3001, Belgium
| | - Julian E Prieto-Vivas
- VIB Laboratory for Systems Biology, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Leuven, 3001, Belgium; CMPG Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics, Department M2S, KU Leuven, Leuven, 3001, Belgium
| | - Karin Voordeckers
- VIB Laboratory for Systems Biology, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Leuven, 3001, Belgium; CMPG Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics, Department M2S, KU Leuven, Leuven, 3001, Belgium
| | - Changhao Bi
- Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China; College of Life Science, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China
| | - Kevin J Verstrepen
- VIB Laboratory for Systems Biology, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology, Leuven, 3001, Belgium; CMPG Laboratory of Genetics and Genomics, Department M2S, KU Leuven, Leuven, 3001, Belgium; VIB-VIB Joint Center of Synthetic Biology, National Center of Technology Innovation for Synthetic Biology, Tianjin, China.
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Tian R, Rehm FBH, Czernecki D, Gu Y, Zürcher JF, Liu KC, Chin JW. Establishing a synthetic orthogonal replication system enables accelerated evolution in E. coli. Science 2024; 383:421-426. [PMID: 38271510 DOI: 10.1126/science.adk1281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
The evolution of new function in living organisms is slow and fundamentally limited by their critical mutation rate. Here, we established a stable orthogonal replication system in Escherichia coli. The orthogonal replicon can carry diverse cargos of at least 16.5 kilobases and is not copied by host polymerases but is selectively copied by an orthogonal DNA polymerase (O-DNAP), which does not copy the genome. We designed mutant O-DNAPs that selectively increase the mutation rate of the orthogonal replicon by two to four orders of magnitude. We demonstrate the utility of our system for accelerated continuous evolution by evolving a 150-fold increase in resistance to tigecycline in 12 days. And, starting from a GFP variant, we evolved a 1000-fold increase in cellular fluorescence in 5 days.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rongzhen Tian
- Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
| | - Fabian B H Rehm
- Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
| | - Dariusz Czernecki
- Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
| | - Yangqi Gu
- Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
| | - Jérôme F Zürcher
- Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
| | - Kim C Liu
- Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
| | - Jason W Chin
- Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
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Williams RL, Liu CC. Accelerated evolution of chosen genes. Science 2024; 383:372-373. [PMID: 38271527 DOI: 10.1126/science.adn3434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
Orthogonal replication enables rapid continuous biomolecular evolution in Escherichia coli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rory L Williams
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Synthetic Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Chang C Liu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Center for Synthetic Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
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Rix G, Williams RL, Spinner H, Hu VJ, Marks DS, Liu CC. Continuous evolution of user-defined genes at 1-million-times the genomic mutation rate. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.13.566922. [PMID: 38014077 PMCID: PMC10680746 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.13.566922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
When nature maintains or evolves a gene's function over millions of years at scale, it produces a diversity of homologous sequences whose patterns of conservation and change contain rich structural, functional, and historical information about the gene. However, natural gene diversity likely excludes vast regions of functional sequence space and includes phylogenetic and evolutionary eccentricities, limiting what information we can extract. We introduce an accessible experimental approach for compressing long-term gene evolution to laboratory timescales, allowing for the direct observation of extensive adaptation and divergence followed by inference of structural, functional, and environmental constraints for any selectable gene. To enable this approach, we developed a new orthogonal DNA replication (OrthoRep) system that durably hypermutates chosen genes at a rate of >10 -4 substitutions per base in vivo . When OrthoRep was used to evolve a conditionally essential maladapted enzyme, we obtained thousands of unique multi-mutation sequences with many pairs >60 amino acids apart (>15% divergence), revealing known and new factors influencing enzyme adaptation. The fitness of evolved sequences was not predictable by advanced machine learning models trained on natural variation. We suggest that OrthoRep supports the prospective and systematic discovery of constraints shaping gene evolution, uncovering of new regions in fitness landscapes, and general applications in biomolecular engineering.
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