• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.1174-1179
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• 2006

The wild-type Corynebacterium glutamicum ATIC 13032 and Corynebacterium glutamicum ATTC 13032 lysC S301Y, exhibiting a deregulated aspartokinase, were compared concerning growth, lysine production, and intracellular carbon fluxes. Both strains differ by only one single nucleotide over the whole genome. In comparison to the wild-type, the mutant showed significant production of lysine with a molar yield of 0.087 mol (mol glucose$^{-1}$) whereas the biomass yield was reduced. The deregulation of aspartokinase further led to a global rearrangement of carbon flux throughout the whole central metabolism. This involved an increased flux through the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) and an increased flux through anaplerosis. Because of this, the mutant revealed an enhanced supply of NADPH and oxaloacetate required for lysine biosynthesis. Additionally, the lumped flux through phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and malic enzyme, withdrawing oxaloacetate back to the glycolysis and therefore detrimental for lysine production, was increased. The reason for this might be a contribution of malic enzyme to NADPH supply in the mutant in the mutant. The observed complex changes are remarkable, because they are due to the minimum genetic modification possible, the exchange of only one single nucleotide.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.373-378
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• 2004

The regulatory mechanism of methionine biosynthesis in Corynebacterium glutamicum was analyzed at the protein arid gene expression level. O-Acetylhomoserine sulfhydraylase (encoded by metY) was inhibited by 10 mM methionine to a residual activity of 10% level, whereas no such inhibition was found with cystathionine $\gamma$-synthase (encoded by metB) and cystathionine $\beta$-lyase (encoded by metC). The enzymatic activity of homoserine acetyltransferase (encoded by metX) was repressed to a residual activity of 25% level by 10 mM methionine which was added to the growth medium. Cystathionine $\gamma$-synthase and cystathionine $\beta$-lyase were also repressed by 10 mM methionine, but only to a residual activity of 50-70% level. O-Acetylhomoserine sulfhydrylase was very sensitive to repression by 10 mM methionine, showing residual activity of 13%. In addition, homoserine acetyltransferase was also repressed by 10 mM cysteine to 50% of its original activity. No repression of the enzymes by S-adenosyl methionine was observed. The pattern of repression by methionine indicated that the metB and aecD genes might be regulated by a common mechanism, while the metA and metY genes are differently regulated.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.1683-1690
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• 2013

The cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP) homolog, GlxR, controls the expression of several genes involved in the regulation of diverse physiological processes in Corynebacterium glutamicum. In silico analysis has revealed the presence of glxR binding sites upstream of genes ptsG, adhA, and ald, encoding glucose-specific phosphotransferase system protein, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), and acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), respectively. However, the involvement of the GlxR-cAMP complex on the expression of these genes has been explored only in vitro. In this study, the expressions of ptsG, adhA, and ald were analyzed in detail using an adenylate cyclase gene (cyaB) deletion mutant and glxR deletion mutant. The specific activities of ADH and ALDH were increased in both the mutants in glucose and glucose plus ethanol media, in contrast to the wild type. In accordance, the promoter activities of adhA and ald were derepressed in the cyaB mutant, indicating that glxR acts as a repressor of adhA. Similarly, both the mutants exhibited derepression of ptsG regardless of the carbon source. These results confirm the involvement of GlxR on the expression of important carbon metabolic genes; adhA, ald, and ptsG.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 1993

The gene for mannose enzyme II of phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system from Corynebacterium glutamicum KCTC 1445 was cloned into Escherichia coli ZSC113 using plasmid pBR 322. The recombinant plasmid, designated pCTS3, contained 2.2 kb DNA fragment, and the physical map of the cloned DNA fragment was determined. The E. coli ptsM ptsG mutant transformed with pCTS3 restored glucose and mannose fermentation ability, and grew well on these sugars as the sole carbon source in the minimal medium. The transform ant harboring pCTS3 showed a PTS-mediated repression of growth on maltose by mannose analogue, 2-deoxyglucose. The specificity of the response to 2DG therefore indicates that the cloned DNA fragment carries mannose enzyme II gene.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.9
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• pp.1305-1310
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• 2021

Shikimate is a key high-demand metabolite for synthesizing valuable antiviral drugs, such as the anti-influenza drug, oseltamivir (Tamiflu). Microbial-based strategies for shikimate production have been developed to overcome the unstable and expensive supply of shikimate derived from traditional plant extraction processes. In this study, a microbial cell factory using Corynebacterium glutamicum was designed to overproduce shikimate in a fed-batch culture system. First, the shikimate kinase gene (aroK) responsible for converting shikimate to the next step was disrupted to facilitate the accumulation of shikimate. Several genes encoding the shikimate bypass route, such as dehydroshikimate dehydratase (QsuB), pyruvate kinase (Pyk1), and quinate/shikimate dehydrogenase (QsuD), were disrupted sequentially. An artificial operon containing several shikimate pathway genes, including aroE, aroB, aroF, and aroG were overexpressed to maximize the glucose uptake and intermediate flux. The rationally designed shikimate-overproducing C. glutamicum strain grown in an optimized medium produced approximately 37.3 g/l of shikimate in 7-L fed-batch fermentation. Overall, rational cell factory design and culture process optimization for the microbial-based production of shikimate will play a key role in complementing traditional plant-derived shikimate production processes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.554-558
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• 2015

Drug delivery systems (DDSs) incorporating bacterial minicells have been evaluated as a very powerful tool in view of biocompatibility. However, limited studies have been carried out on these systems, mainly using minicells from Salmonella sp. and Escherichia coli. Thus, we generated a new minicell-producing strain from an endotoxin-free Corynebacterium glutamicum by the inactivation of genes related to cell division. The two knockout strains, ${\Delta}parA$ and ${\Delta}ncgl1366$, showed distinct abilities to produce minicells. The resulting minicells were purified via sequential antibiotic treatments and centrifugations, which resulted in reproducible yields.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.561-567
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• 1991

This study was designed to investigate the productivity of L-methionine by the method of protoplast fusion between Brevibacterium flavum ATCC 14067 and Corynebacterium glutamicm ATCC 13032, and then L-methionine production was performed to continuous fermentation using the immobilized fusant cells. Mutants B. flavum K 104($thr\;met\;Km^{r}\;Et^{r}\;Sm^{r}\;Tm^{r}\;as\;genetic\;marker$) and C. glutamicum B 70($thr\;Hos\;Km^{r}\;Et^{r}\;Sm^{r}\;Tm^{r}as\;genetic\;marker$) were isolated by MNNG treatment. On the other hand, protoplast of mutants were formed to treat with lysis solution containing $500{\mu}g/ml$ of lysozyme. The ratios of protoplast formation and regeneration were 99% and $64{\sim}66%$ respectively. Fusion frequency between B. flavum K 104 and C. glutamicum B 70 showed the $3.5{\times}10^{5}$ in the 35% polyethylene glycol(PEG6000) containing 3% PVP solution. The productivity of L-methionine by fusant BFCG 37 immobilized with sodium alginate was 0.89 g/l the batch fermentation and was $18.75mg/^{1}hr\;^{1}$ on the continuous fermentation at $30^{\circ}C$ for 72 hr.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.207-211
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• 2012

Autoinduction is mediated by signaling molecules known as autoinducers (AIs) that are produced, released and detected by bacterium itself. We recently reported that Corynebacterium glutamicum possesses an autoinduction system which secretes autoinducers during the stationary-phase of growth, triggering the expression of acyltransferase gene. However, it is still not clear what may act as autoinducers for the autoinduction in C. glutamicum. In this study, we compared the inducing effects of cell-free culture fluids obtained from a number of microbes including Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Vibrio harveyi, and Escherichia coli. Fluids from A. tumefaciens did not increase the expression of acyltransferase, whereas fluids from V. harveyi BB120 ($AI-1^+$, $AI-2^+$) did. Interestingly, the expression was increased by the fluids obtained from the early exponential-phase culture of BB120. Furthermore, this induction was not observed by the fluids from autoinducer mutants of V. harveyi MM77 ($AI-1^-$, $AI-2^-$) and BB152 ($AI-1^-$, $AI-2^+$). Unlike the effect shown by BB152, fluids from E. coli ($AI-1^-$, $AI-2^+$) still induced the acyltransferase expression. Taken together, these results suggest that C. glutamicum autoinducers seem to be unidentified molecules which do not belong to AI-1 or AI-2.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.1353-1360
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• 2007

Three csp-like genes were identified in the Corynebacterium glutamicum genome and designated cspA, cspB, and cspA2. The genes cspA and cspA2 encode proteins, comprising of 67 amino acid residues, respectively. They share 83% identity with each other. Identity of those proteins with Escherichia coli Csp proteins was near 50%. The cspB gene encodes a protein composed of 127 amino acids, which has 40% and 35% sequence identity with CspA and CspA2, respectively, especially at its N-terminal region. Analysis of the gene expression profiles was done using transcriptional cat fusion, which identified not only active expression of the three genes at the physiological growth temperature of $30^{\circ}C$ but also growth phase-dependent expression with the highest activity at late log phase. The promoters of cspA and cspA2 were more active than that of cspB. The expression of the two genes increased by 30% after a temperature downshift to $15^{\circ}C$, and such stimulation was more evident in the late growth phase. In addition, the cspA gene appeared to show DNA-binding activity in vivo, and the activity increased at lower temperatures. Interestingly, the presence of cspA in multicopy hindered the growth of the host C. glutamicum cells at $20^{\circ}C$, but not at $30^{\circ}C$. Altogether, these data suggest that cspA, cspB, and cspA2 perform functions related to cold shock as well as normal cellular physiology. Moreover, CspA and its ortholog CspA2 may perform additional functions as a transcriptional regulator.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.40-49
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• 2001

The present work presents a novel approach for the dynamic quantification of respiration rates on a small scale by using lysine-producing Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 21253. Cells sampeld from batch cultures at different times were incubated ina 12-ml scale bioreactor equipped with a membrane mass spectrometer. Under dynamic conditions, gas exchange across the gas-liquid phase, specific respiration rates, and RQ values were precisely measured. For this purpose, suitable mass balances were formulated. The transport coefficients for $O_2$ and $CO_2$, crucial for calculating the respiration activity, were determined as $k_La_{O2}=9.18h^{-1}$ and $k_La_{CO2}=5.10h^{-1}$ at 400 rpm. The application of the proposed method to batch cultures of C. glutamicum ATCC 21253 revealed the maximum specific respiration rates of $q_{O2}=8.4\;mmol\;g^{-1}h^{-1}\;and\;q_{CO2}=8.7\;mmol\;g^{-1}h^{-1}$ in the middle of the exponential growth phase after 5 h of cultivation. When the cells changed from growth to lysine production due to the depletion of the essential amino acids theonine, methionine, and leucine, $q_{O2}\;and\;q_{CO2}$ decreased significantly and RQ increased. The respiration data exhibited an excellent agreement with previous cultivations of the strain [13]. This confirms the potential of the developed approach to realistically reflect the metabolic activities of cells at their point of sampling. The short-term influence of added threonine, methionine, and leucine was highest during the shift from growth to lysine production, where $q_{O2}\;and\;q_{CO2}$ increased 50% within one minute after the pulse addition of these compounds. Non-growing, yet lysine-producing cells taken from the end of the batch cultivation revealed no metabolic stimulation with the addition of threonine, methionine, and leucine.