The efficient synthesis and purification of 2'3'- cGAMP from Escherichia coli.

Agonists of the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway are being explored as potential immunotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer and as vaccine adjuvants for infectious diseases. Although chemical synthesis of 2'3' - cyclic Guanosine Monophosphate-Adenosine Monophosphate (cGAMP) is commercially feasible, the process results in low yields and utilizes organic solvents. To pursue an efficient and environmentally friendly process for the production of cGAMP, we focused on the recombinant production of cGAMP via a whole-cell biocatalysis platform utilizing the murine cyclic Guanosine monophosphate-Adenosine monophosphate synthase (mcGAS). In E. coli BL21(DE3) cells, recombinant expression of mcGAS, a DNA-dependent enzyme, led to the secretion of cGAMP to the supernatants. By evaluating the: (1) media composition, (2) supplementation of divalent cations, (3) temperature of protein expression, and (4) amino acid substitutions pertaining to DNA binding; we showed that the maximum yield of cGAMP in the supernatants was improved by 30% from 146 mg/L to 186 ± 7 mg/mL under optimized conditions. To simplify the downstream processing, we developed and validated a single-step purification process for cGAMP using anion exchange chromatography. The method does not require protein affinity chromatography and it achieved a yield of 60 ± 2 mg/L cGAMP, with <20 EU/mL (<0.3 EU/µg) of endotoxin. Unlike chemical synthesis, our method provides a route for the recombinant production of cGAMP without the need for organic solvents and supports the goal of moving toward shorter, more sustainable, and more environmentally friendly processes.

Design and characterization of a salicylic acid-inducible gene expression system for Jurkat cells.

With continued progress in cell and gene therapies, there is an immediate need for exogenously tunable gene expression systems with safe and predictable behavior in specific human cell types. Here, we demonstrate the ability of the salicylic acid (SA)-inducible MarR repressor protein from Escherichia coli to regulate target gene expression in a human T lymphocyte cell line. Two lentiviral vectors, one encoding an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) reporter cassette and the other a repressor cassette, were sequentially transduced into Jurkat cells, using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to isolate stable Jurkat progeny. As a result, EGFP expression was repressed by MarR and was inducible upon the addition of SA (~1.3 fold). This represents the first example of functional expression of bacterial MarR in mammalian cells, and opens the possibility for further development of regulated, SA-tunable gene expression system for T-cells.

Engineering Escherichia coli for anaerobic alkane activation: Biosynthesis of (1-methylalkyl)succinates.

In anoxic environments, microbial activation of alkanes for subsequent metabolism occurs most commonly through the addition of fumarate to a subterminal carbon, producing an alkylsuccinate. Alkylsuccinate synthases are complex, multi-subunit enzymes that utilize a catalytic glycyl radical and require a partner, activating enzyme for hydrogen abstraction. While many genes encoding putative alkylsuccinate synthases have been identified, primarily from nitrate- and sulfate-reducing bacteria, few have been characterized and none have been reported to be functionally expressed in a heterologous host. Here, we describe the functional expression of the (1-methylalkyl)succinate synthase (Mas) system from Azoarcus sp. strain HxN1 in recombinant Escherichia coli. Mass spectrometry confirms anaerobic biosynthesis of the expected products of fumarate addition to hexane, butane, and propane. Maximum production of (1-methylpentyl)succinate is observed when masC, masD, masE, masB, and masG are all present on the expression plasmid; omitting masC reduces production by 66% while omitting any other gene eliminates production. Meanwhile, deleting iscR (encoding the repressor of the E. coli iron-sulfur cluster operon) improves product titer, as does performing the biotransformation at reduced temperature (18°C), both suggesting alkylsuccinate biosynthesis is largely limited by functional expression of this enzyme system.

Engineering sensitivity and specificity of AraC-based biosensors responsive to triacetic acid lactone and orsellinic acid.

We previously described the design of triacetic acid lactone (TAL) biosensor 'AraC-TAL1', based on the AraC regulatory protein. Although useful as a tool to screen for enhanced TAL biosynthesis, this variant shows elevated background (leaky) expression, poor sensitivity and relaxed inducer specificity, including responsiveness to orsellinic acid (OA). More sensitive biosensors specific to either TAL or OA can aid in the study and engineering of polyketide synthases that produce these and similar compounds. In this work, we employed a TetA-based dual-selection to isolate new TAL-responsive AraC variants showing reduced background expression and improved TAL sensitivity. To improve TAL specificity, OA was included as a 'decoy' ligand during negative selection, resulting in the isolation of a TAL biosensor that is inhibited by OA. Finally, to engineer OA-specific AraC variants, the iterative protein redesign and optimization computational framework was employed, followed by 2 rounds of directed evolution, resulting in a biosensor with 24-fold improved OA/TAL specificity, relative to AraC-TAL1.

Small-molecule inducible transcriptional control in mammalian cells.

Tools for tuning transcription in mammalian cells have broad applications, from basic biological discovery to human gene therapy. While precise control over target gene transcription via dosing with small molecules (drugs) is highly sought, the design of such inducible systems that meets required performance metrics poses a great challenge in mammalian cell synthetic biology. Important characteristics include tight and tunable gene expression with a low background, minimal drug toxicity, and orthogonality. Here, we review small-molecule-inducible transcriptional control devices that have demonstrated success in mammalian cells and mouse models. Most of these systems employ natural or designed ligand-binding protein domains to directly or indirectly communicate with transcription machinery at a target sequence, via carefully constructed fusions. Example fusions include those to transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs), DNA-targeting proteins (e.g. dCas systems) fused to transactivating domains, and recombinases. Similar to the architecture of Type I nuclear receptors, many of the systems are designed such that the transcriptional controller is excluded from the nucleus in the absence of an inducer. Techniques that use ligand-induced proteolysis and antibody-based chemically induced dimerizers are also described. Collectively, these transcriptional control devices take advantage of a variety of recently developed molecular biology tools and cell biology insights and represent both proof of concept (e.g. targeting reporter gene expression) and disease-targeting studies.

Biosensor-guided improvements in salicylate production by recombinant Escherichia coli.

BACKGROUND: Salicylate can be biosynthesized from the common metabolic intermediate shikimate and has found applications in pharmaceuticals and in the bioplastics industry. While much metabolic engineering work focused on the shikimate pathway has led to the biosynthesis of a variety of aromatic compounds, little is known about how the relative expression levels of pathway components influence salicylate biosynthesis. Furthermore, some host strain gene deletions that improve salicylate production may be impossible to predict. Here, a salicylate-responsive transcription factor was used to optimize the expression levels of shikimate/salicylate pathway genes in recombinant E. coli, and to screen a chromosomal transposon insertion library for improved salicylate production. RESULTS: A high-throughput colony screen was first developed based on a previously designed salicylate-responsive variant of the E. coli AraC regulatory protein ("AraC-SA"). Next, a combinatorial library was constructed comprising a series of ribosome binding site sequences corresponding to a range of predicted protein translation initiation rates, for each of six pathway genes (> 38,000 strain candidates). Screening for improved salicylate production allowed for the rapid identification of optimal gene expression patterns, conferring up to 123% improved production of salicylate in shake-flask culture. Finally, transposon mutagenesis and screening revealed that deletion of rnd (encoding RNase D) from the host chromosome further improved salicylate production by 27%. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the salicylate sensor-based screening platform to rapidly identify beneficial gene expression patterns and gene knockout targets for improving production. Such customized high-throughput tools complement other cell factory engineering strategies. This approach can be generalized for the production of other shikimate-derived compounds.

Engineering Escherichia coli to increase triacetic acid lactone (TAL) production using an optimized TAL sensor-reporter system.

Triacetic acid lactone (TAL) (4-hydroxy-6-methyl-2-pyrone) can be upgraded into a variety of higher-value products, and has potential to be developed into a renewable platform chemical through metabolic engineering. We previously developed an endogenous TAL sensor based on the regulatory protein AraC, and applied it to screen 2-pyrone synthase (2-PS) variant libraries in E. coli, resulting in the identification of variants conferring up to 20-fold improved TAL production in liquid culture. In this study, the sensor-reporter system was further optimized and used to further improve TAL production from recombinant E. coli, this time by screening a genomic overexpression library. We identified new and unpredictable gene targets (betT, ompN, and pykA), whose plasmid-based expression improved TAL yield (mg/L/OD595) up to 49% over the control strain. This work further demonstrates the utility of customized transcription factors as molecular reporters in high-throughput engineering of biocatalytic strains.

Level of Fimbriation Alters the Adhesion of Escherichia coli Bacteria to Interfaces.

Adhesion of bacteria to interfaces is the first step in pathogenic infection, in biofilm formation, and in bioremediation of oil spills and other pollutants. Bacteria use a variety of surface structures to promote interfacial adhesion, with the level of expression of these structures varying in response to local conditions and environmental signals. Here, we investigated how overexpression of type 1 fimbriae, one such appendage, modifies the ability of Escherichia coli to adhere to solid substrates, via biofilm formation and yeast agglomeration, and to oil/water interfaces, via a microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon assay. A plasmid that enables inducible expression of E. coli MG1655 type 1 fimbriae was transformed into fimbriae-deficient mutant strain MG1655ΔfimA. The level of fimH gene expression in the engineered strain, measured using quantitative real-time PCR, could be tuned by changing the concentration of inducer isopropyl ß-d-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), and was higher than that in strain MG1655. Increasing the degree of fimbriation only slightly modified the surface energy and zeta potential of the bacteria, but enhanced their ability to agglomerate yeast cells and to adhere to solid substrates (as measured by biofilm formation) and to oil/water interfaces. We anticipate that the tunable extent of fimbriation accessible with this engineered strain can be used to investigate how adhesin expression modifies the ability of bacteria to adhere to interfaces and to actively self-assemble there.

Design and characterization of new ß-glucuronidase active site variants with altered substrate specificity.

OBJECTIVE: To isolate and characterize the kinetics of variants of E. coli ß-glucuronidase (GUS) having altered substrate specificity. RESULTS: Two small combinatorial libraries of E. coli GUS variants were constructed and screened for improved activities towards the substrate p-nitrophenyl-ß-D-galactoside (pNP-gal). Nine of the most active variants were purified and their kinetic parameters were determined. These variants show up to 134-fold improved kcat/KM value towards pNP-gal compared to wild-type GUS, up to 9 × 108-fold shift in specificity from p-nitrophenyl-ß-D-glucuronide (pNP-glu) to pNP-gal compared to wild-type, and 103-fold increase in specificity shift compared to a previously evolved GUS variant. CONCLUSIONS: The kinetic data collected for nine new GUS variants is invaluable for training computational protein design models that better predict amino acid substitutions which improve activity of enzyme variants having altered substrate specificity.

New and improved tools and methods for enhanced biosynthesis of natural products in microorganisms.

Engineering efficient biosynthesis of natural products in microorganisms requires optimizing gene expression levels to balance metabolite flux distributions and to minimize accumulation of toxic intermediates. Such metabolic optimization is challenged with identifying the right gene targets, and then determining and achieving appropriate gene expression levels. After decades of having a relatively limited set of gene regulation tools available, metabolic engineers are recently enjoying an ever-growing repertoire of more precise and tunable gene expression platforms. Here we review recent applications of natural and designed transcriptional and translational regulatory machinery for engineering biosynthesis of natural products in microorganisms. Customized trans-acting RNAs (sgRNA, asRNA and sRNA), along with appropriate accessory proteins, are allowing for unparalleled tuning of gene expression. Meanwhile metabolite-responsive transcription factors and riboswitches have been implemented in strain screening and evolution, and in dynamic gene regulation. Further refinements and expansions on these platform technologies will circumvent many long-term obstacles in natural products biosynthesis.

Subnanometric Roughness Affects the Deposition and Mobile Adhesion of Escherichia coli on Silanized Glass Surfaces.

We investigate the deposition and transient adhesion of Escherichia coli on alkyl and fluoroalkyl silanized glass surfaces of different carbon chain lengths. The rate at which bacteria deposit onto these surfaces decreases as the shear stress is increased from 3 to 67 mPa, but trends in the deposition rate across all surfaces cannot be predicted from extended DLVO calculations of the interaction potential. As the surface root-mean-square (rms) roughness increases, the deposition rate increases and the percentage of motile tethered cells decreases. Furthermore, on surfaces of root-mean-square roughness of less than 0.2 nm, bacteria exhibit mobile adhesion, for which surface-associated cells linearly translate distances greater than approximately 1.5 times their average body length along the flow direction. E. coli bacteria with and without flagella exhibit mobile adhesion, indicating that this behavior is not driven by these appendages. Cells that express fimbriae do not exhibit mobile adhesion. These results suggest that even subnanoscale roughness can influence the deposition and transient adhesion of bacteria and imply that strategies to reduce frictional interactions by making cells or surfaces smoother may help to control the initial fouling of surfaces by E. coli bacteria.

Analysis of amino acid substitutions in AraC variants that respond to triacetic acid lactone.

The Escherichia coli regulatory protein AraC regulates expression of ara genes in response to l-arabinose. In efforts to develop genetically encoded molecular reporters, we previously engineered an AraC variant that responds to the compound triacetic acid lactone (TAL). This variant (named "AraC-TAL1") was isolated by screening a library of AraC variants, in which five amino acid positions in the ligand-binding pocket were simultaneously randomized. Screening was carried out through multiple rounds of alternating positive and negative fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Here we show that changing the screening protocol results in the identification of different TAL-responsive variants (nine new variants). Individual substituted residues within these variants were found to primarily act cooperatively toward the gene expression response. Finally, X-ray diffraction was used to solve the crystal structure of the apo AraC-TAL1 ligand-binding domain. The resolved crystal structure confirms that this variant takes on a structure nearly identical to the apo wild-type AraC ligand-binding domain (root-mean-square deviation 0.93 Å), suggesting that AraC-TAL1 behaves similar to wild-type with regard to ligand recognition and gene regulation. Our results provide amino acid sequence-function data sets for training and validating AraC modeling studies, and contribute to our understanding of how to design new biosensors based on AraC.

Functional enrichment by direct plasmid recovery after fluorescence activated cell sorting.

Iterative screening of expressed protein libraries using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) typically involves culturing the pooled clones after each sort. In these experiments, if cell viability is compromised by the sort conditions and/or expression of the target protein(s), rescue PCR provides an alternative to culturing but requires re-cloning and can introduce amplification bias. We have optimized a simple protocol using commercially available reagents to directly recover plasmid DNA from sorted cells for subsequent transformation. We tested our protocol with 2 different screening systems in which <10% of sorted cells survive culturing and demonstrate that >60% of the sorted cell population was recovered.

Recent advances in engineering proteins for biocatalysis.

Protein engineers are increasingly able to rely on structure-function insights, computational methods, and deeper understanding of natural biosynthesis processes, to streamline the design and applications of enzymes. This review highlights recent successes in applying new or improved protein engineering strategies toward the design of improved enzymes and enzymes with new activities. We focus on three approaches: structure-guided protein design, computational design, and the use of novel scaffolding and compartmentalization techniques to improve performance of multienzyme systems. Examples described address problems relating to enzyme specificity, stability, and/or activity, or aim to balance sequential reactions and route intermediates by co-localizing multiple enzymes. Specific applications include improving production of biofuels using enzymes with altered cofactor specificity, production of high-value chiral compounds by enzymes with tailored substrate specificities, and accelerated cellulose degradation via multi-enzyme scaffold assemblies. Collectively, these studies demonstrate a growing variety of computational and molecular biology tools. Continued advances on these fronts coupled with better mindfulness of how to apply proteins in unique ways offer exciting prospects for future protein engineering and biocatalysis research.

OptZyme: computational enzyme redesign using transition state analogues.

OptZyme is a new computational procedure for designing improved enzymatic activity (i.e., kcat or kcat/KM) with a novel substrate. The key concept is to use transition state analogue compounds, which are known for many reactions, as proxies for the typically unknown transition state structures. Mutations that minimize the interaction energy of the enzyme with its transition state analogue, rather than with its substrate, are identified that lower the transition state formation energy barrier. Using Escherichia coli ß-glucuronidase as a benchmark system, we confirm that KM correlates (R(2) = 0.960) with the computed interaction energy between the enzyme and the para-nitrophenyl- ß, D-glucuronide substrate, kcat/KM correlates (R(2) = 0.864) with the interaction energy of the transition state analogue, 1,5-glucarolactone, and kcat correlates (R(2) = 0.854) with a weighted combination of interaction energies with the substrate and transition state analogue. OptZyme is subsequently used to identify mutants with improved KM, kcat, and kcat/KM for a new substrate, para-nitrophenyl- ß, D-galactoside. Differences between the three libraries reveal structural differences that underpin improving KM, kcat, or kcat/KM. Mutants predicted to enhance the activity for para-nitrophenyl- ß, D-galactoside directly or indirectly create hydrogen bonds with the altered sugar ring conformation or its substituents, namely H162S, L361G, W549R, and N550S.

Screening for enhanced triacetic acid lactone production by recombinant Escherichia coli expressing a designed triacetic acid lactone reporter.

Triacetic acid lactone (TAL) is a signature byproduct of polyketide synthases (PKSs) and a valuable synthetic precursor. We have developed an endogenous TAL reporter by engineering the Escherichia coli regulatory protein AraC to activate gene expression in response to TAL. The reporter enabled in vivo directed evolution of Gerbera hybrida 2-pyrone synthase activity in E. coli . Two rounds of mutagenesis and high-throughput screening yielded a variant conferring ~20-fold increased TAL production. The catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km) of the variant toward the substrate malonyl-CoA was improved 19-fold. This study broadens the utility of engineered AraC variants as customized molecular reporters. In addition, the TAL reporter can find applications in other basic PKS activity screens.

Single-cell characterization of autotransporter-mediated Escherichia coli surface display of disulfide bond-containing proteins.

Autotransporters (ATs) are a family of bacterial proteins containing a C-terminal ß-barrel-forming domain that facilitates the translocation of N-terminal passenger domain whose functions range from adhesion to proteolysis. Genetic replacement of the native passenger domain with heterologous proteins is an attractive strategy not only for applications such as biocatalysis, live-cell vaccines, and protein engineering but also for gaining mechanistic insights toward understanding AT translocation. The ability of ATs to efficiently display functional recombinant proteins containing multiple disulfides has remained largely controversial. By employing high-throughput single-cell flow cytometry, we have systematically investigated the ability of the Escherichia coli AT Antigen 43 (Ag43) to display two different recombinant reporter proteins, a single-chain antibody (M18 scFv) that contains two disulfides and chymotrypsin that contains four disulfides, by varying the signal peptide and deleting the different domains of the native protein. Our results indicate that only the C-terminal ß-barrel and the threaded α-helix are essential for efficient surface display of functional recombinant proteins containing multiple disulfides. These results imply that there are no inherent constraints for functional translocation and display of disulfide bond-containing proteins mediated by the AT system and should open new avenues for protein display and engineering.

Protein and RNA engineering to customize microbial molecular reporting.

Nature takes advantage of the malleability of protein and RNA sequence and structure to employ these macromolecules as molecular reporters whose conformation and functional roles depend on the presence of a specific ligand (an "effector" molecule). By following nature's example, ligand-responsive proteins and RNA molecules are now routinely engineered and incorporated into customized molecular reporting systems (biosensors). Microbial small-molecule biosensors and endogenous molecular reporters based on these sensing components find a variety of applications that include high-throughput screening of biosynthesis libraries, environmental monitoring, and novel gene regulation in synthetic biology. Here, we review recent advances in engineering small-molecule recognition by proteins and RNA and in coupling in vivo ligand binding to reporter-gene expression or to allosteric activation of a protein conferring a detectable phenotype. Emphasis is placed on microbial screening systems that serve as molecular reporters and facilitate engineering the ligand-binding component to recognize new molecules.

Strain engineering strategies for improving whole-cell biocatalysis: engineering Escherichia coli to overproduce xylitol as an example.

This chapter provides an overview of key tools and methodologies available to practitioners of biocatalysis interested in using microorganisms to carry out biotransformations and describes specific examples of applying genetic modification strategies for strain design. We focus on the use of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for gene amplification, plasmid DNA for recombinant gene cloning and expression, and homologous recombination and phage transduction for modifying chromosomal DNA. Specifically we use Escherichia coli as the host organism, and the overproduction of xylitol by reduction of xylose represents the biotransformation of interest.