• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.392-400
• /
• 2019

Chondroitin, the precursor of chondroitin sulfate, which is an important polysaccharide, has drawn significant attention due to its applications in many fields. In the present study, a heterologous biosynthesis pathway of chondroitin was designed in a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) strain C. glutamicum. CgkfoC and CgkfoA genes with host codon preference were synthesized and driven by promoter Ptac, which was confirmed as a strong promoter via GFPuv reporter assessment. In a lactate dehydrogenase (ldh) deficient host, intracellular chondroitin titer increased from 0.25 to 0.88 g/l compared with that in a wild-type host. Moreover, precursor enhancement via overexpressing precursor synthesizing gene ugdA further improved chondroitin titers to 1.09 g/l. Chondroitin production reached 1.91 g/l with the engineered strain C. glutamicum ${\Delta}L-CgCAU$ in a 5-L fed-batch fermentation with a single distribution $M_w$ of 186 kDa. This work provides an alternative, safe and novel means of producing chondroitin for industrial applications.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.506-514
• /
• 2020

4-Hydroxybenzyl alcohol (4-HB alcohol) is one of the major active components of Gastrodia elata Blume, with beneficial effects on neurological disorders such as headache, convulsive behavior, and dizziness. Here, we developed a metabolically engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum strain able to produce 4-HB alcohol from 4-hydroxybenzoate (4-HBA). First, the strain APS963 was obtained from the APS809 strain via the insertion of aroK from Methanocaldococcus jannaschii into the NCgl2922-deleted locus. As carboxylic acid reductase from Nocardia iowensis catalyzes the reduction of 4HBA to 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (4-HB aldehyde), we then introduced a codon-optimized car gene into the genome of APS963, generating the GAS177 strain. Then, we deleted creG coding for a putative short-chain dehydrogenase and inserted ubiCpr encoding a product-resistant chorismate-pyruvate lyase into the pcaHG-deleted locus. The resulting engineered GAS355 strain accumulated 2.3 g/l 4-HB alcohol with 0.32 g/l 4-HBA and 0.3 g/l 4-HB aldehyde as byproducts from 8% glucose after 48 h of culture.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.1154-1163
• /
• 2024

Glucosylation is a well-known approach to improve the solubility, pharmacological, and biological properties of flavonoids, making flavonoid glucosides a target for large-scale biosynthesis. However, the low yield of products coupled with the requirement of expensive UDP-sugars limits the application of enzymatic systems for large-scale. C. glutamicum is a Gram-positive and generally regarded as safe (GRAS) bacteria frequently employed for the large-scale production of amino acids and biofuels. Due to the versatility of its cell factory system and its non-endotoxin producing properties, it has become an attractive system for the industrial-scale biosynthesis of alternate products. Here, we explored the cell factory of C. glutamicum for efficient glucosylation of flavonoids using apigenin as a model flavonoid, with the heterologous expression of a promiscuous glycosyltransferase, YdhE from Bacillus licheniformis and the endogenous overexpression of C. glutamicum genes galU1 encoding UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase and pgm encoding phosphoglucomutase involved in the synthesis of UDP-glucose to create a C. glutamicum cell factory system capable of efficiently glucosylation apigenin with a high yield of glucosides production. Consequently, the production of various apigenin glucosides was controlled under different temperatures yielding almost 4.2 mM of APG1(apigenin-4'-O-β-glucoside) at 25℃, and 0.6 mM of APG2 (apigenin-7-O-β-glucoside), 1.7 mM of APG3 (apigenin-4',7-O-β-diglucoside) and 2.1 mM of APG4 (apigenin- 4',5-O-β-diglucoside) after 40 h of incubation with the supplementation of 5 mM of apigenin and 37℃. The cost-effective developed system could be used to modify a wide range of plant secondary metabolites with increased pharmacokinetic activities on a large scale without the use of expensive UDP-sugars.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.20 no.8
• /
• pp.1196-1203
• /
• 2010

In the present work, methanethiol and dimethyldisulfide were investigated as sulfur sources for methionine synthesis in Corynebacterium glutamicum. In silico pathway analysis predicted a high methionine yield for these reduced compounds, provided that they could be utilized. Wild-type cells were able to grow on both methanethiol and dimethyldisulfide as sole sulfur sources. Isotope labeling studies with mutant strains, exhibiting targeted modification of methionine biosynthesis, gave detailed insight into the underlying pathways involved in the assimilation of methanethiol and dimethyldisulfide. Both sulfur compounds are incorporated as an entire molecule, adding the terminal S-$CH_3$ group to O-acetylhomoserine. In this reaction, methionine is directly formed. MetY (O-acetylhomoserine sulfhydrylase) was identified as the enzyme catalyzing the reaction. The deletion of metY resulted in methionine auxotrophic strains grown on methanethiol or dimethyldisulfide as sole sulfur sources. Plasmid-based overexpression of metY in the ${\Delta}$metY background restored the capacity to grow on methanethiol or dimethyldisulfide as sole sulfur sources. In vitro studies with the C. glutamicum wild type revealed a relatively low activity of MetY for methanethiol (63 mU/mg) and dimethyldisulfide (61 mU/mg). Overexpression of metY increased the in vitro activity to 1,780 mU/mg and was beneficial for methionine production, since the intracellular methionine pool was increased 2-fold in the engineered strain. This positive effect was limited by a depletion of the metY substrate O-acetylhomoserine, suggesting a need for further metabolic engineering targets towards competitive production strains.