CO2 /HCO3⁻ perturbations of simulated large scale gradients in a scale-down device cause fast transcriptional responses in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

The exploration of scale-down models to imitate the influence of large scale bioreactor inhomogeneities on cellular metabolism is a topic with increasing relevance. While gradients of substrates, pH, or dissolved oxygen are often investigated, oscillating CO2/HCO3 (-) levels, a typical scenario in large industrial bioreactors, is rarely addressed. Hereby, we investigate the metabolic and transcriptional response in Corynebacterium glutamicum wild type as well as the impact on L-lysine production in a model strain exposed to pCO2 gradients of (75-315) mbar. A three-compartment cascade bioreactor system was developed and characterized that offers high flexibility for installing gradients and residence times to mimic industrial-relevant conditions and provides the potential of accurate carbon balancing. The phenomenological analysis of cascade fermentations imposed to the pCO2 gradients at industry-relevant residence times of about 3.6 min did not significantly impair the process performance, with growth and product formation being similar to control conditions. However, transcriptional analysis disclosed up to 66 differentially expressed genes already after 3.6 min under stimulus exposure, with the overall change in gene expression directly correlateable to the pCO2 gradient intensity and the residence time of the cells.

Impact of different CO2/HCO3- levels on metabolism and regulation in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

We investigated the growth kinetics and transcriptional responses of Corynebacterium glutamicum in environments with low (pCO2<40 mbar) and high (pCO2 ≥ 300 mbar) CO2/HCO3(-) levels compared to standard conditions. When cultivated at high CO2/HCO3(-)-levels, C. glutamicum showed increased (63%) biomass to substrate yields during the initial growth phase. Other kinetic parameters such as growth rate (µ), specific glucose consumption rate (qS), and selected enzymatic activities of anaplerotic reactions, the pentose phosphate pathway and the tricarboxylic acid cycle were similar to standard conditions. However, microarray hybridization disclosed a complex transcriptional response involving 117 differentially expressed genes. Among those, 60 genes were assigned to the complete DtxR/RipA regulon controlling iron homeostasis in C. glutamicum. Impaired growth of a ΔdtxR mutant at high CO2/HCO3(-) levels validated the relevance of this master regulator to cope with excessive CO2/HCO3(-) availability. At low CO2/HCO3(-) levels, C. glutamicum grew in a bi-level manner with three distinct growth phases. Differential analyses revealed approximately doubled activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase accompanied by the formation of L-alanine and L-valine during the lowest µ occurring in mid-phase of the cultivation. DNA microarray analysis revealed more than 100 differentially expressed genes in growth phase II compared to phase I including almost all thiamin pyrophosphate (TPP) biosynthesis genes, which were significantly up regulated. Concluding, we hypothesize that C. glutamicum counteracts the lack of CO2/HCO3(-) by triggering TPP biosynthesis for increasing the activities of TPP-dependent enzymes involved in CO2 formation.

Platform engineering of Corynebacterium glutamicum with reduced pyruvate dehydrogenase complex activity for improved production of L-lysine, L-valine, and 2-ketoisovalerate.

Exchange of the native Corynebacterium glutamicum promoter of the aceE gene, encoding the E1p subunit of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC), with mutated dapA promoter variants led to a series of C. glutamicum strains with gradually reduced growth rates and PDHC activities. Upon overexpression of the l-valine biosynthetic genes ilvBNCE, all strains produced l-valine. Among these strains, C. glutamicum aceE A16 (pJC4 ilvBNCE) showed the highest biomass and product yields, and thus it was further improved by additional deletion of the pqo and ppc genes, encoding pyruvate:quinone oxidoreductase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, respectively. In fed-batch fermentations at high cell densities, C. glutamicum aceE A16 Δpqo Δppc (pJC4 ilvBNCE) produced up to 738 mM (i.e., 86.5 g/liter) l-valine with an overall yield (YP/S) of 0.36 mol per mol of glucose and a volumetric productivity (QP) of 13.6 mM per h [1.6 g/(liter × h)]. Additional inactivation of the transaminase B gene (ilvE) and overexpression of ilvBNCD instead of ilvBNCE transformed the l-valine-producing strain into a 2-ketoisovalerate producer, excreting up to 303 mM (35 g/liter) 2-ketoisovalerate with a YP/S of 0.24 mol per mol of glucose and a QP of 6.9 mM per h [0.8 g/(liter × h)]. The replacement of the aceE promoter by the dapA-A16 promoter in the two C. glutamicum l-lysine producers DM1800 and DM1933 improved the production by 100% and 44%, respectively. These results demonstrate that C. glutamicum strains with reduced PDHC activity are an excellent platform for the production of pyruvate-derived products.