skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: CRAGE-CRISPR facilitates rapid activation of secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters in bacteria

Journal Article · · Cell Chemical Biology

With the advent of genome sequencing and mining technologies, secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) within bacterial genomes are becoming easier to predict. For subsequent BGC characterization, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) has contributed to knocking out target genes and/or modulating their expression; however, CRISPR is limited to strains for which robust genetic tools are available. Here we present a strategy that combines CRISPR with chassis-independent recombinase-assisted genome engineering (CRAGE), which enables CRISPR systems in diverse bacteria. To demonstrate CRAGE-CRISPR, we select 10 polyketide/non-ribosomal peptide BGCs in Photorhabdus luminescens as models and create their deletion and activation mutants. Subsequent loss- and gain-of-function studies confirm 22 secondary metabolites associated with the BGCs, including a metabolite from a previously uncharacterized BGC. These results demonstrate that the CRAGE-CRISPR system is a simple yet powerful approach to rapidly perturb expression of defined BGCs and to profile genotype-phenotype relationships in bacteria.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1881880
Journal Information:
Cell Chemical Biology, Vol. 29, Issue 4; ISSN 2451-9456
Publisher:
Cell PressCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (45)

Entomopathogenic bacteria as a source of secondary metabolites journal April 2009
Structure Elucidation and Activity of Kolossin A, the D -/ L -Pentadecapeptide Product of a Giant Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetase journal June 2015
Entomopathogenic bacteriaPhotorhabdus luminescensas drug source againstLeishmania amazonensis journal November 2017
Structures of Cas9 Endonucleases Reveal RNA-Mediated Conformational Activation journal February 2014
CRISPR/dCas9-mediated transcriptional improvement of the biosynthetic gene cluster for the epothilone production in Myxococcus xanthus journal January 2018
Distribution of siderophore gene systems on a Vibrionaceae phylogeny: Database searches, phylogenetic analyses and evolutionary perspectives journal February 2018
Synthetic CRISPR-Cas gene activators for transcriptional reprogramming in bacteria journal June 2018
Full-length RecE enhances linear-linear homologous recombination and facilitates direct cloning for bioprospecting journal April 2012
Crystal Structure of Cas9 in Complex with Guide RNA and Target DNA journal February 2014
Efficient Genome Editing of a Facultative Thermophile Using Mesophilic spCas9 journal February 2017
Heterogeneity in Bacterial Specialized Metabolism journal November 2019
CRISPR-Mediated Modular RNA-Guided Regulation of Transcription in Eukaryotes journal July 2013
Multi-functional genome-wide CRISPR system for high throughput genotype–phenotype mapping journal December 2019
Bacterial genome editing by coupling Cre-lox and CRISPR-Cas9 systems journal November 2020
DNA Repair: Common Approaches to Fixing Double-Strand Breaks journal July 2009
A specialized metabolic network selectively modulates Arabidopsis root microbiota journal May 2019
CRISPR/Cas9 in Genome Editing and Beyond journal June 2016
Engineering Complex Synthetic Transcriptional Programs with CRISPR RNA Scaffolds journal January 2015
Tuning genetic control through promoter engineering journal August 2005
One-shot NMR analysis of microbial secretions identifies highly potent proteasome inhibitor journal October 2012
The regulation of pathogenicity and mutualism in Photorhabdus journal April 2006
Photorhabdus: towards a functional genomic analysis of a symbiont and pathogen journal January 2003
Glidobactins A, B and C, new antitumor antibiotics. I. Production, isolation, chemical properties and biological activity. journal January 1988
Accessing Bioactive Natural Products from the Human Microbiome journal June 2018
MZmine 2: Modular framework for processing, visualizing, and analyzing mass spectrometry-based molecular profile data journal July 2010
Multiplexed and tunable transcriptional activation by promoter insertion using nuclease-assisted vector integration journal April 2019
Genome-Scale CRISPR-Mediated Control of Gene Repression and Activation journal October 2014
Refining the Natural Product Repertoire in Entomopathogenic Bacteria journal October 2018
Discovery of microbial natural products by activation of silent biosynthetic gene clusters journal June 2015
Computational approaches to natural product discovery journal August 2015
Insect-Specific Production of New GameXPeptides in Photorhabdus luminescens TTO1, Widespread Natural Products in Entomopathogenic Bacteria journal November 2014
Merging chemical ecology with bacterial genome mining for secondary metabolite discovery journal February 2014
CRAGE enables rapid activation of biosynthetic gene clusters in undomesticated bacteria journal October 2019
Effective CRISPRa-mediated control of gene expression in bacteria must overcome strict target site requirements journal April 2020
Production of Cytotoxic Glidobactins/Luminmycins by Photorhabdus asymbiotica in Liquid Media and Live Crickets journal October 2012
Secondary Metabolites Produced by Heterorhabditis Symbionts and Their Application in Agriculture: What We Know and What to Do Next journal January 2018
The New State of the Art: Cas9 for Gene Activation and Repression journal September 2015
Simple “On-Demand” Production of Bioactive Natural Products journal March 2015
The Fish Pathogen Vibrio ordalii Under Iron Deprivation Produces the Siderophore Piscibactin journal September 2019
Enabling Graded and Large-Scale Multiplex of Desired Genes Using a Dual-Mode dCas9 Activator in Saccharomyces cerevisiae journal June 2017
Structures of cepafungins I, II and III. journal January 1990
CRAGE-Duet Facilitates Modular Assembly of Biological Systems for Studying Plant–Microbe Interactions journal July 2020
CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) for sequence-specific control of gene expression journal October 2013
Regulating Alternative Lifestyles in Entomopathogenic Bacteria journal January 2010
Systematic testing of enzyme perturbation sensitivities via graded dCas9 modulation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae journal March 2017