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Title: Toward industrial production of isoprenoids in Escherichia coli: Lessons learned from CRISPR-Cas9 based optimization of a chromosomally integrated mevalonate pathway

Journal Article · · Biotechnology and Bioengineering
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.26530· OSTI ID:1530349
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Osaka Municipal Technical Research Inst. (Japan)
  3. Univ. of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD (Australia)
  4. Joint BioEnergy Inst. (JBEI), Emeryville, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Technical Univ. of Denmark, Horsholm (Denmark); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

Abstract Escherichia coli has been the organism of choice for the production of different chemicals by engineering native and heterologous pathways. In the present study, we simultaneously address some of the main issues associated with E. coli as an industrial platform for isoprenoids, including an inability to grow on sucrose, a lack of endogenous control over toxic mevalonate (MVA) pathway intermediates, and the limited pathway engineering into the chromosome. As a proof of concept, we generated an E. coli DH1 strain able to produce the isoprenoid bisabolene from sucrose by integrating the cscAKB operon into the chromosome and by expressing a heterologous MVA pathway under stress‐responsive control. Production levels dropped dramatically relative to plasmid‐mediated expression when the entire pathway was integrated into the chromosome. In order to optimize the chromosomally integrated MVA pathway, we established a CRISPR‐Cas9 system to rapidly and systematically replace promoter sequences. This strategy led to higher pathway expression and a fivefold improvement in bisabolene production. More interestingly, we analyzed proteomics data sets to understand and address some of the challenges associated with metabolic engineering of the chromosomally integrated pathway. This report shows that integrating plasmid‐optimized operons into the genome and making them work optimally is not a straightforward task and any poor engineering choices on the chromosome may lead to cell death rather than just resulting in low titers. Based on these results, we also propose directions for chromosomal metabolic engineering.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; DE‐AC02‐05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1530349
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1419808
Journal Information:
Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. 115, Issue 4; ISSN 0006-3592
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 27 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (10)

Techniques for chromosomal integration and expression optimization in Escherichia coli journal July 2018
Modular biomanufacturing for a sustainable production of terpenoid-based insect deterrents journal January 2018
Recent advances of metabolic engineering strategies in natural isoprenoid production using cell factories journal January 2020
Homology-dependent recombination of large synthetic pathways into E. coli genome via λ-Red and CRISPR/Cas9 dependent selection methodology journal May 2020
CRISPR Gene Perturbations Provide Insights for Improving Bacterial Biofuel Tolerance journal September 2018
Microbial Platform for Terpenoid Production: Escherichia coli and Yeast journal October 2018
Advancement of Metabolic Engineering Assisted by Synthetic Biology journal December 2018
Bacterial terpene biosynthesis: challenges and opportunities for pathway engineering journal January 2019
Identification of parallel and divergent optimization solutions for homologous metabolic enzymes journal June 2018
Challenges and tackles in metabolic engineering for microbial production of carotenoids journal March 2019

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