Inducible promoter-repressor system from the Lactobacillus casei phage phiFSW

Expanding the genetic programmability of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum

Lactobacilli are ubiquitous in nature and symbiotically provide health benefits for countless organisms including humans, animals and plants. They are vital for the fermented food industry and are being extensively explored for healthcare applications. For all these reasons, there is considerable interest in enhancing and controlling their capabilities through the engineering of genetic modules and circuits. One of the most robust and reliable microbial chassis for these synthetic biology applications is the widely used Lactiplantibacillus plantarum species. However, the genetic toolkit needed to advance its applicability remains poorly equipped. This mini-review highlights the genetic parts that have been discovered to achieve food-grade recombinant protein production and speculates on lessons learned from these studies for L. plantarum engineering. Furthermore, strategies to identify, create and optimize genetic parts for real-time regulation of gene expression and enhancement of biosafety are also suggested.

Illuminating the oral microbiome and its host interactions: tools and approaches for molecular microbiology studies

Advancements in DNA sequencing technologies within the last decade have stimulated an unprecedented interest in the human microbiome, largely due the broad diversity of human diseases found to correlate with microbiome dysbiosis. As a direct consequence of these studies, a vast number of understudied and uncharacterized microbes have been identified as potential drivers of mucosal health and disease. The looming challenge in the field is to transition these observations into defined molecular mechanistic studies of symbiosis and dysbiosis. In order to meet this challenge, many of these newly identified microbes will need to be adapted for use in experimental models. Consequently, this review presents a comprehensive overview of the molecular microbiology tools and techniques that have played crucial roles in genetic studies of the bacteria found within the human oral microbiota. Here, we will use specific examples from the oral microbiome literature to illustrate the biology supporting these techniques, why they are needed in the field, and how such technologies have been implemented. It is hoped that this information can serve as a useful reference guide to help catalyze molecular microbiology studies of the many new understudied and uncharacterized species identified at different mucosal sites in the body.

Plug-in repressor library for precise regulation of metabolic flux in Escherichia coli

In metabolic engineering, enhanced production of value-added chemicals requires precise flux control between growth-essential competing and production pathways. Although advances in synthetic biology have facilitated the exploitation of a number of genetic elements for precise flux control, their use requires expensive inducers, or more importantly, needs complex and time-consuming processes to design and optimize appropriate regulator components, case-by-case. To overcome this issue, we devised the plug-in repressor libraries for target-specific flux control, in which expression levels of the repressors were diversified using degenerate 5' untranslated region (5' UTR) sequences employing the UTR Library Designer. After we validated a wide expression range of the repressor libraries, they were applied to improve the production of lycopene from glucose and 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) from acetate in Escherichia coli via precise flux rebalancing to enlarge precursor pools. Consequently, we successfully achieved optimal carbon fluxes around the precursor nodes for efficient production. The most optimized strains were observed to produce 2.59 g/L of 3-HP and 11.66 mg/L of lycopene, which were improved 16.5-fold and 2.82-fold, respectively, compared to those produced by the parental strains. These results indicate that carbon flux rebalancing using the plug-in library is a powerful strategy for efficient production of value-added chemicals in E. coli.

Reduction of D-lactate content in sauerkraut using starter cultures of recombinant Leuconostoc mesenteroides expressing the ldhL gene

The D-form of lactate, which causes metabolic stress upon excessive dietary intake, is mainly produced by Leuconostoc sp., the predominant species in sauerkraut. To shift the metabolic flux of d-lactate from pyruvate to l-lactate, we expressed the l-lactate dehydrogenase (ldhL) gene in Leuconostoc mesenteroides ATCC 8293. The ldhL gene from Lactobacillus plantarum was introduced into L. mesenteroides using the shuttle vectors pLeuCM and pLeuCM42. To elevate the expression level of ldhL in L. mesenteroides, the nucleotides for pyruvate kinase promoter were fused to ldhL and cloned into above vectors to construct pLC18pkL and pLC42pkL. As results, introduction of pLC42pkL in L. mesenteroides significantly improved both l-LDH activity and l-lactate productivity during fermentation, decreasing the d-/l-lactate ratio. When used as a starter culture for sauerkraut fermentation, recombinant L. mesenteroides harboring pLC42pkL increased l-lactate concentration and decreased d-lactate concentration compared to the wild type strain. We newly developed a recombinant L. mesenteroides which has high l-lactate dehydrogenase activity and applied this strain to minimize the harmful effect of d-lactate during the sauerkraut fermentation. To the best of our knowledge, we demonstrate for the first time the effective use of recombinant Leuconostoc sp. for quality improvement of fermented foods.

Recombinant production of hyperthermostable CelB from Pyrococcus furiosus in Lactobacillus sp

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are used widespread in the food industry as traditional starters for various fermented foods. For recombinant protein production, LAB would be superior with view from the food safety demands since most of them are Generally Recognized As Safe organisms. We investigated the two pSIP expression systems, pSIP403 and pSIP409 (Sørvig et al. 2005), to produce a hyper-thermophilic β-glycosidase (CelB) from Pyrococcus furiosus in Lactobacillus plantarum NC8 and Lactobacillus casei as hosts, respectively. Both lactobacilli harboring the pSIP409-celB vector produced active CelB in batch bioreactor cultivations (MRS medium) while the specific CelB activity of the cell free extract was about 44 % higher with L. plantarum (1,590 ± 90 nkat/mg(protein)) than with L. casei (1,070 ± 66 nkat/mg(protein)) using p-nitrophenyl-β-galactoside (pNPGal) as the substrate. A fed-batch bioreactor cultivation of L. plantarum NC8 pSIP409-celB resulted in a specific CelB activity of 2,500 ± 120 nkat ( pNPGal)/mg(protein) after 28 h. A repeated dosage of the inducer spp-IP did not increase the enzyme expression further. As alternative for the cost intensive MRS medium, a basal whey medium with supplements (yeast extract, Tween 80, NH(4)-citrate) was developed. In bioreactor cultivations using this medium, about 556 ± 29 nkat ( pNPGal)/mg(protein) of CelB activity was achieved. It was shown that both LAB were potential expression hosts for recombinant enzyme production. The pSIP expression system can be applied in L. casei.

Structure and Function of the Small MutS-Related Domain

MutS family proteins are widely distributed in almost all organisms from bacteria to human and play central roles in various DNA transactions such as DNA mismatch repair and recombinational events. The small MutS-related (Smr) domain was originally found in the C-terminal domain of an antirecombination protein, MutS2, a member of the MutS family. MutS2 is thought to suppress homologous recombination by endonucleolytic resolution of early intermediates in the process. The endonuclease activity of MutS2 is derived from the Smr domain. Interestingly, sequences homologous to the Smr domain are abundant in a variety of proteins other than MutS2 and can be classified into 3 subfamilies. Recently, the tertiary structures and endonuclease activities of all 3 Smr subfamilies were reported. In this paper, we review the biochemical characteristics and structures of the Smr domains as well as cellular functions of the Smr-containing proteins.

Characterization of the cro-ori region of the Streptococcus thermophilus virulent bacteriophage DT1

The virulent cos-type Streptococcus thermophilus phage DT1 was previously isolated from a mozzarella whey sample, and its complete genomic sequence is available. The putative ori of phage DT1 is characterized by three inverted and two direct repeats located in a noncoding region between orf36 and orf37. As the replication ability of the putative ori and flanking genes could not be established, its ability to confer phage resistance was tested. When ori is cloned on a high-copy-number plasmid, it provides protection to S. thermophilus strains against phage infection during milk fermentation. This protection is phage specific and strain dependent. Then, a detailed transcriptional map was established for the region located between the cro-like gene (orf29) and the ori. The results of the Northern blots indicated that the transcription of this region started 5 min after the onset of phage infection. Comparative analysis of the expression of the cro-ori region in the three S. thermophilus cos-type phages DT1, Sfi19 (virulent), and Sfi21 (temperate) reveals significant differences in the number and size of transcripts. The promoter upstream of orf29 was further investigated by primer extension analysis, and its activity was confirmed by a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase assay, which showed that the phage promoter is more efficient than the constitutive bacterial promoter of the S. thermophilus operon encoding the general proteins of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system. However, the phage promoter is less efficient than the pts promoter in Lactococcus lactis and in Escherichia coli.

Analysis of promoter sequences from Lactobacillus helveticus CNRZ32 and their activity in other lactic acid bacteria

AIMS

To clone and analyse seven putative promoter fragments (pepC, pepN, pepX, pepO, pepE, pepO2, hsp17) from Lactobacillus helveticus CNRZ32 for their expression in Lact. helveticus CNRZ32, Lact. casei ATCC334 and Lactococcus lactis MG1363.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Promoter fragments were fused to the promoter-less beta-glucuronidase (gusA) gene on pNZ272(RBS-) (ATG-). The resulting constructs were evaluated for their ability to drive the expression of active GusA with 0.5 mmol l(-1) 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-beta-D-glucuronide. All promoters except P(pepN)::gusA were active in the examined strains. Northern hybridization was performed to examine the promoter strength. Sequence analysis of these promoters identified well conserved putative ribosomal binding and putative -10 hexamers sites.

CONCLUSIONS

Seven promoter fragments from Lact. helveticus CNRZ32 were recognized in the lactic acid bacteria, Lact. casei ATCC334 and L. lactis MG1363, as well as in Escherichia coli. P(pepN)::gusA could not be maintained in the strains examined because of toxicity associated with heterologous protein over-expression driven by P(pepN).

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

This study revealed that desirable levels of heterologous food-grade protein production in GRAS organisms can be obtained with the application of natural promoter fragments from closely related organisms.