[Using dynamic molecular switches for shikimic acid production in Escherichia coli].

Shikimic acid is an intermediate metabolite in the synthesis of aromatic amino acids in Escherichia coli and a synthetic precursor of Tamiflu. The biosynthesis of shikimic acid requires blocking the downstream shikimic acid consuming pathway that leads to inefficient production and cell growth inhibition. In this study, a dynamic molecular switch was constructed by using growth phase-dependent promoters and degrons. This dynamic molecular switch was used to uncouple cell growth from shikimic acid synthesis, resulting in the production of 14.33 g/L shikimic acid after 72 h fermentation. These results show that the dynamic molecular switch could redirect the carbon flux by regulating the abundance of target enzymes, for better production.

Rewiring carbon flux in Escherichia coli using a bifunctional molecular switch.

The unbalanced distribution of carbon flux in microbial cell factories can lead to inefficient production and poor cell growth. Uncoupling cell growth and chemical synthesis can therefore improve microbial cell factory efficiency. Such uncoupling, which requires precise manipulation of carbon fluxes, can be achieved by up-regulating or down-regulating the expression of enzymes of various pathways. In this study, a dynamic turn-off switch (dTFS) and a dynamic turn-on switch (dTNS) were constructed using growth phase-dependent promoters and degrons. By combining the dTFS and dTNS, a bifunctional molecular switch that could orthogonally regulate two target proteins was introduced. This bifunctional molecular switch was used to uncouple cell growth from shikimic acid and D-glucaric acid synthesis, resulting in the production of 14.33 g/L shikimic acid and the highest reported productivity of D-glucaric acid (0.0325 g/L/h) in Escherichia coli MG1655. This proved that the bifunctional molecular switch could rewire carbon fluxes by controlling target protein abundance.

Programmable biomolecular switches for rewiring flux in Escherichia coli.

Synthetic biology aims to develop programmable tools to perform complex functions such as redistributing metabolic flux in industrial microorganisms. However, development of protein-level circuits is limited by availability of designable, orthogonal, and composable tools. Here, with the aid of engineered viral proteases and proteolytic signals, we build two sets of controllable protein units, which can be rationally configured to three tools. Using a protease-based dynamic regulation circuit to fine-tune metabolic flow, we achieve 12.63 g L-1 shikimate titer in minimal medium without inducer. In addition, the carbon catabolite repression is alleviated by protease-based inverter-mediated flux redistribution under multiple carbon sources. By coordinating reaction rate using a protease-based oscillator in E. coli, we achieve D-xylonate productivity of 7.12 g L-1 h-1 with a titer of 199.44 g L-1. These results highlight the applicability of programmable protein switches to metabolic engineering for valuable chemicals production.