A CRISPR/dCpf1-based transcriptional repression system for Gluconobacter oxydans / 生物工程学报

Gluconobacter oxydans are widely used in industrial due to its ability of oxidizing carbohydrate rapidly. However, the limited gene manipulation methods and less of efficient gene editing tools impose restrictions on its application in industrial production. In recent years, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) system has been widely used in genome editing and transcriptional regulation which improves the efficiency of genome editing greatly. Here we constructed a CRISPR/dCpf1-mediated gene transcriptional repression system, the expression of a nuclease inactivation Cpf1 protein (dCpf1) in Gluconobacter oxydans together with a 19 nt direct repeats showed effective repression in gene transcription. This system in single gene repression had strong effect and the relative repression level had been increased to 97.9%. While it could be applied in multiplex gene repression which showed strong repression ability at the same time. Furthermore, this system was used in the metabolic pathway of L-sorbose and the regulatory of respiratory chain. The development of CRISPR transcriptional repression system effectively covered the shortage of current gene regulation methods in G. oxydans and provided an efficient gene manipulation tool for metabolic engineering modification in G. oxydans.

Synthesis of pyrroloquinoline quinone by recombinant Gluconobacter oxydans / 生物工程学报

Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ), an important redox enzyme cofactor, has many physiological and biochemical functions, and is widely used in food, medicine, health and agriculture industry. In this study, PQQ production by recombinant Gluconobacter oxydans was investigated. First, to reduce the by-product of acetic acid, the recombinant strain G. oxydans T1 was constructed, in which the pyruvate decarboxylase (GOX1081) was knocked out. Then the pqqABCDE gene cluster and tldD gene were fused under the control of endogenous constitutive promoter P0169, to generate the recombinant strain G. oxydans T2. Finally, the medium composition and fermentation conditions were optimized. The biomass of G. oxydans T1 and G. oxydans T2 were increased by 43.02% and 38.76% respectively, and the PQQ production was 4.82 and 20.5 times higher than that of the wild strain, respectively. Furthermore, the carbon sources and culture conditions of G. oxydans T2 were optimized, resulting in a final PQQ yield of (51.32±0.899 7 mg/L), 345.6 times higher than that of the wild strain. In all, the biomass of G. oxydans and the yield of PQQ can be effectively increased by genetic engineering.

Biosynthesis of α-lipoic acid in Gluconobacter oxydans increases the production of vitamin C by one-step fermentation / 生物工程学报

In a one-step fermentation system of vitamin C production with Gluconobacter oxydans and Ketogulonicigenium vulgare, a functional module of α-lipoic acid biosynthesis was constructed in G. oxydans. The engineered G. oxydans was co-cultured with K. vulgare to enhance the growth and 2-keto-L-gulonic acid (2-KGA) production of K. vulgare. This one-step fermentation system alleviated the growth inhibition during the mono-culture of K. vulgare and strengthened the interaction between the two bacteria. Moreover, the yield of vitamin C precursor (2-KGA) increased to 73.34 g/L (the control group was 59.09 g/L), and the conversion of D-sorbitol to 2-KGA increased to 86.0%. This study provides a new idea for further optimizing the one-step fermentation system of vitamin C production.