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Kim K, Choe D, Kang M, Cho SH, Cho S, Jeong KJ, Palsson B, Cho BK. Serial adaptive laboratory evolution enhances mixed carbon metabolic capacity of Escherichia coli. Metab Eng 2024; 83:160-171. [PMID: 38636729 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2024.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2024] [Revised: 03/31/2024] [Accepted: 04/14/2024] [Indexed: 04/20/2024]
Abstract
Microbes have inherent capacities for utilizing various carbon sources, however they often exhibit sub-par fitness due to low metabolic efficiency. To test whether a bacterial strain can optimally utilize multiple carbon sources, Escherichia coli was serially evolved in L-lactate and glycerol. This yielded two end-point strains that evolved first in L-lactate then in glycerol, and vice versa. The end-point strains displayed a universal growth advantage on single and a mixture of adaptive carbon sources, enabled by a concerted action of carbon source-specialists and generalist mutants. The combination of just four variants of glpK, ppsA, ydcI, and rph-pyrE, accounted for more than 80% of end-point strain fitness. In addition, machine learning analysis revealed a coordinated activity of transcriptional regulators imparting condition-specific regulation of gene expression. The effectiveness of the serial adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) scheme in bioproduction applications was assessed under single and mixed-carbon culture conditions, in which serial ALE strain exhibited superior productivity of acetoin compared to ancestral strains. Together, systems-level analysis elucidated the molecular basis of serial evolution, which hold potential utility in bioproduction applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kangsan Kim
- Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea; KAIST Institute for the BioCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Donghui Choe
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Minjeong Kang
- Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea; KAIST Institute for the BioCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Sang-Hyeok Cho
- Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea; KAIST Institute for the BioCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Suhyung Cho
- KAIST Institute for the BioCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Ki Jun Jeong
- KAIST Institute for the BioCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea; Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea; Graduate School of Engineering Biology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Bernhard Palsson
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Byung-Kwan Cho
- Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea; KAIST Institute for the BioCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea; Graduate School of Engineering Biology, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea.
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Hou C, Liu L, Ju X, Xiao Y, Li B, You C. Revisiting Fur Regulon Leads to a Comprehensive Understanding of Iron and Fur Regulation. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24109078. [PMID: 37240425 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24109078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Revised: 05/16/2023] [Accepted: 05/16/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Iron is an essential element because it functions as a cofactor of many enzymes, but excess iron causes cell damage. Iron hemostasis in Escherichia coli was transcriptionally maintained by the ferric uptake regulator (Fur). Despite having been studied extensively, the comprehensive physiological roles and mechanisms of Fur-coordinated iron metabolism still remain obscure. In this work, by integrating a high-resolution transcriptomic study of the Fur wild-type and knockout Escherichia coli K-12 strains in the presence or absence of iron with high-throughput ChIP-seq assay and physiological studies, we revisited the regulatory roles of iron and Fur systematically and discovered several intriguing features of Fur regulation. The size of the Fur regulon was expanded greatly, and significant discrepancies were observed to exist between the regulations of Fur on the genes under its direct repression and activation. Fur showed stronger binding strength to the genes under its repression, and genes that were repressed by Fur were more sensitive to Fur and iron regulation as compared to the genes that were activated by Fur. Finally, we found that Fur linked iron metabolism to many essential processes, and the systemic regulations of Fur on carbon metabolism, respiration, and motility were further validated or discussed. These results highlight how Fur and Fur-controlled iron metabolism affect many cellular processes in a systematic way.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaofan Hou
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Lin Liu
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Xian Ju
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Yunzhu Xiao
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Bingyu Li
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Conghui You
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
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Iyer MS, Pal A, Venkatesh KV. A Systems Biology Approach To Disentangle the Direct and Indirect Effects of Global Transcription Factors on Gene Expression in Escherichia coli. Microbiol Spectr 2023; 11:e0210122. [PMID: 36749045 PMCID: PMC10100776 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.02101-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2022] [Accepted: 01/19/2023] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Delineating the pleiotropic effects of global transcriptional factors (TFs) is critical for understanding the system-wide regulatory response in a particular environment. Currently, with the availability of genome-wide TF binding and gene expression data for Escherichia coli, several gene targets can be assigned to the global TFs, albeit inconsistently. Here, using a systematic integrated approach with emphasis on metabolism, we characterized and quantified the direct effects as well as the growth rate-mediated indirect effects of global TFs using deletion mutants of FNR, ArcA, and IHF regulators (focal TFs) under glucose fermentative conditions. This categorization enabled us to disentangle the dense connections seen within the transcriptional regulatory network (TRN) and determine the exact nature of focal TF-driven epistatic interactions with other global and pathway-specific local regulators (iTFs). We extended our analysis to combinatorial deletions of these focal TFs to determine their cross talk effects as well as conserved patterns of regulatory interactions. Moreover, we predicted with high confidence several novel metabolite-iTF interactions using inferred iTF activity changes arising from the allosteric effects of the intracellular metabolites perturbed as a result of the absence of focal TFs. Further, using compendium level computational analyses, we revealed not only the coexpressed genes regulated by these focal TFs but also the coordination of the direct and indirect target expression in the context of the economy of intracellular metabolites. Overall, this study leverages the fundamentals of TF-driven regulation, which could serve as a better template for deciphering mechanisms underlying complex phenotypes. IMPORTANCE Understanding the pleiotropic effects of global TFs on gene expression and their relevance underlying a specific response in a particular environment has been challenging. Here, we distinguish the TF-driven direct effects and growth rate-mediated indirect effects on gene expression using single- and double-deletion mutants of FNR, ArcA, and IHF regulators under anaerobic glucose fermentation. Such dissection assists us in unraveling the precise nature of interactions existing between the focal TF(s) and several other TFs, including those altered by allosteric effects of intracellular metabolites. We were able to recapitulate the previously known metabolite-TF interactions and predict novel interactions with high confidence. Furthermore, we determined that the direct and indirect gene expression have a strong connection with each other when analyzed using the coexpressed- or coregulated-gene approach. Deciphering such regulatory patterns explicitly from the metabolism point of view would be valuable in understanding other unpredicted complex regulation existing in nature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahesh S. Iyer
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
| | - Ankita Pal
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
| | - K. V. Venkatesh
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India
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Ju X, Fang X, Xiao Y, Li B, Shi R, Wei C, You C. Small RNA GcvB Regulates Oxidative Stress Response of Escherichia coli. Antioxidants (Basel) 2021; 10:antiox10111774. [PMID: 34829644 PMCID: PMC8614746 DOI: 10.3390/antiox10111774] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2021] [Revised: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 11/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Small non-translated regulatory RNAs control plenty of bacterial vital activities. The small RNA GcvB has been extensively studied, indicating the multifaceted roles of GcvB beyond amino acid metabolism. However, few reported GcvB-dependent regulation in minimal medium. Here, by applying a high-resolution RNA-seq assay, we compared the transcriptomes of a wild-type Escherichia coli K-12 strain and its gcvB deletion derivative grown in minimal medium and identified putative targets responding to GcvB, including flu, a determinant gene of auto-aggregation. The following molecular studies and the enhanced auto-aggregation ability of the gcvB knockout strain further substantiated the induced expression of these genes. Intriguingly, the reduced expression of OxyR (the oxidative stress regulator) in the gcvB knockout strain was identified to account for the increased expression of flu. Additionally, GcvB was characterized to up-regulate the expression of OxyR at the translational level. Accordingly, compared to the wild type, the GcvB deletion strain was more sensitive to oxidative stress and lost some its ability to eliminate endogenous reactive oxygen species. Taken together, we reveal that GcvB regulates oxidative stress response by up-regulating OxyR expression. Our findings provide an insight into the diversity of GcvB regulation and add an additional layer to the regulation of OxyR.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xian Ju
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China; (X.J.); (X.F.); (Y.X.); (B.L.); (R.S.)
| | - Xingxing Fang
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China; (X.J.); (X.F.); (Y.X.); (B.L.); (R.S.)
| | - Yunzhu Xiao
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China; (X.J.); (X.F.); (Y.X.); (B.L.); (R.S.)
| | - Bingyu Li
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China; (X.J.); (X.F.); (Y.X.); (B.L.); (R.S.)
- Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China;
| | - Ruoping Shi
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China; (X.J.); (X.F.); (Y.X.); (B.L.); (R.S.)
| | - Chaoliang Wei
- Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China;
| | - Conghui You
- Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Microbial Genetic Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Oceanology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China; (X.J.); (X.F.); (Y.X.); (B.L.); (R.S.)
- Correspondence:
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