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ABSTRACT: Both prokaryotes and eukaryotes have pyramid-shaped hierarchical regulatory networks that control gene transcription, enabling the cell to respond to natural environmental changes. In recent years, manipulation and engineering of transcriptional regulatory proteins and networks have been used to elicit microbial tolerance to industrially relevant stresses. We review the current research on the engineering of regulators that include specific, "middle level", and global regulators, and native, artificial, and exogenous regulators. With an increasing number of transcriptional regulators identified and characterized, this methodology should prove promising for the improvement of microbial stress tolerance.
Biotechnology advances 03/2013; · 8.25 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Lignocellulosic biomass is regarded as the most viable source of feedstock for industrial biorefinery, but the harmful inhibitors generated from the indispensable pretreatments prior to fermentation remain a daunting technical hurdle. Using an exogenous regulator, irrE, from the radiation-resistant Deinococcus radiodurans, we previously showed that a novel global regulator engineering (GRE) approach significantly enhanced tolerances of Escherichia coli to alcohol and acetate stresses. In this work, an irrE library was subjected to selection under various stresses of furfural, a typical hydrolysate inhibitor. Three furfural tolerant irrE mutants including F1-37 and F2-1 were successfully obtained. The cells containing these mutants reached OD(600) levels of 4- to 16-fold of that for the pMD18T cells in growth assay under 0.2% (v/v) furfural stress. The cells containing irrE F1-37 and F2-1 also showed considerably reduced intracellular oxygen species (ROS) levels under furfural stress. Moreover, these two irrE mutants were subsequently found to confer significant cross tolerances to two other most common inhibitors, 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde (HMF), vanillin, as well as real lignocellulosic hydrolysates. When evaluated in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium supplemented with corn stover cellulosic hydrolysate (prepared with a solid loading of 30%), the cells containing the mutants exhibited lag phases markedly shortened by 24-44 h in comparison with the control cells. This work thus presents a promising step forward to resolve the inhibitor problem for E. coli. From the view of synthetic biology, irrE can be considered as an evolvable "part" for various stresses. Furthermore, this GRE approach can be extended to exploit other exogenous global regulators from extremophiles, and the native counterparts in E. coli, for eliciting industrially useful phenotypes. Biotechnol. Bioeng. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Biotechnology and Bioengineering 06/2012; · 3.95 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Cell reprogramming for microorganisms via engineered or artificial transcription factors and RNA polymerase mutants has presented a powerful tool for eliciting complex traits that are practically useful particularly for industrial strains, and for understanding at the global level the regulatory network of gene transcription. We previously further showed that an exogenous global regulator IrrE (derived from the extreme radiation-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans) can be tailored to confer Escherichia coli (E. coli) with significantly enhanced tolerances to different stresses. In this work, based on comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses of the representative strains E1 and E0, harboring the ethanol-tolerant IrrE mutant E1 and the ethanol-intolerant wild type IrrE, respectively, we found that the transcriptome and proteome of E. coli were extensively rewired by the tailored IrrE protein. Overall, 1196 genes (or approximately 27% of E. coli genes) were significantly altered at the transcriptomic level, including notably genes in the nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide (NO) pathway, and genes for non-coding RNAs. The proteomic profile revealed significant up- or downregulation of several proteins associated with syntheses of the cell membrane and cell wall. Analyses of the intracellular NO level and cell growth under reduced temperature supported a close correlation between NO and ethanol tolerance, and also suggests a role for membrane fluidity. The significantly different omic profiles of strain E1 indicate that IrrE functions as a global regulator in E. coli, and that IrrE may be evolved for other cellular tolerances. In this sense, it will provide synthetic biology with a practical and evolvable regulatory "part" that operates at a higher level of complexity than local regulators. This work also suggests a possibility of introducing and engineering other exogenous global regulators to rewire the genomes of microorganism cells.
PLoS ONE 01/2012; 7(7):e37126. · 4.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The tolerance of cells toward different stresses is very important for industrial strains of microbes, but difficult to improve by the manipulation of single genes. Traditional methods for enhancing cellular tolerances are inefficient and time-consuming. Recently, approaches employing global transcriptional or translational engineering methods have been increasingly explored. We found that an exogenous global regulator, irrE from an extremely radiation-resistant bacterium, Deinococcus radiodurans, has the potential to act as a global regulator in Escherichia coli, and that laboratory-evolution might be applied to alter this regulator to elicit different phenotypes for E. coli.
To extend the methodology for strain improvement and to obtain higher tolerances toward different stresses, we here describe an approach of engineering irrE gene in E. coli. An irrE library was constructed by randomly mutating the gene, and this library was then selected for tolerance to ethanol, butanol and acetate stresses. Several mutants showing significant tolerances were obtained and characterized. The tolerances of E. coli cells containing these mutants were enhanced 2 to 50-fold, based on cell growth tests using different concentrations of alcohols or acetate, and enhanced 10 to 100-fold based on ethanol or butanol shock experiments. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) assays showed that intracellular ROS levels were sharply reduced for cells containing the irrE mutants. Sequence analysis of the mutants revealed that the mutations distribute cross all three domains of the protein.
To our knowledge, this is the first time that an exogenous global regulator has been artificially evolved to suit its new host. The successes suggest the possibility of improving tolerances of industrial strains by introducing and engineering exogenous global regulators, such as those from extremophiles. This new approach can be applied alone or in combination with other global methods, such as global transcriptional machinery engineering (gTME) for strain improvements.
PLoS ONE 01/2011; 6(1):e16228. · 4.09 Impact Factor
