Direct production of organic acids from starch by cell surface-engineered Corynebacterium glutamicum in anaerobic conditions.

We produced organic acids, including lactate and succinate, directly from soluble starch under anaerobic conditions using high cell-density cultures of Corynebacterium glutamicum displaying α-amylase (AmyA) from Streptococcus bovis 148 on the cell surface. Notably, reactions performed under anaerobic conditions at 35 and 40°C, which are higher than the optimal growth temperature of 30°C, showed 32% and 19%, respectively, higher productivity of the organic acids lactate, succinate, and acetate compared to that at 30°C. However, α-amylase was not stably anchored and released into the medium from the cell surface during reactions at these higher temperatures, as demonstrated by the 61% and 85% decreases in activity, respectively, from baseline, compared to the only 8% decrease at 30°C. The AmyA-displaying C. glutamicum cells retained their starch-degrading capacity during five 10 h reaction cycles at 30°C, producing 107.8 g/l of total organic acids, including 88.9 g/l lactate and 14.0 g/l succinate. The applicability of cell surface-engineering technology for the production of organic acids from biomass by high cell-density cultures of C. glutamicum under anaerobic conditions was demonstrated.

Robust production of gamma-amino butyric acid using recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum expressing glutamate decarboxylase from Escherichia coli.

Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) is a component of pharmaceuticals, functional foods, and the biodegradable plastic polyamide 4. Here, we report a simple and robust system to produce GABA from glucose using the recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum strain GAD, which expresses GadB, a glutamate decarboxylase encoded by the gadB gene of Escherichia coli W3110. As confirmed by HPLC analysis, GABA fermentation by C. glutamicum GAD cultured at 30°C in GABA Production 1 (GP1) medium containing 50 g/L glucose without the addition of glutamate yielded 8.07 ± 1.53 g/L extracellular GABA after 96 h. Addition of 0.1mM pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) was found to enhance the production of GABA, whereas Tween 40 was unnecessary for GABA fermentation. Using the optimized GABA Production 2 (GP2) medium, which contained 50 g/L glucose and 0.1mM PLP, fermentation was performed in a flask at 30°C with 10% (v/v) seed culture of C. glutamicum GAD. GABA was produced in the culture supernatant with a yield of 12.37 ± 0.88 g/L after 72 h with a space-time yield of 0.172 g/L/h, which is the highest yield obtained to date for GABA from fermentation with glucose as a main carbon source.

Glutamate production from ß-glucan using endoglucanase-secreting Corynebacterium glutamicum.

We demonstrate glutamate production from ß-glucan using endoglucanase (EG)-expressing Corynebacterium glutamicum. The signal sequence torA derived from Escherichia coli K12, which belongs to the Tat pathway, was suitable for secreting EG of Clostridium thermocellum using C. glutamicum as a host. Using the torA signal sequence, endoglucanase from Clostridium cellulovorans 743B was successfully expressed, and the secreted EG produced 123 mg of reducing sugar from 5 g of ß-glucan at 30 °C for 72 h, which is the optimal condition for C. glutamicum growth. Subsequently, glutamate fermentation from ß-glucan was carried out with the addition of Aspergillus aculeatus ß-glucosidase produced by recombinant Aspergillus oryzae. Using EG-secreting C. glutamicum, 178 mg/l of glutamate was produced from 15 g of ß-glucan. This is the first report of glutamate fermentation from ß-glucan using endoglucanase-secreting C. glutamicum.

Development of novel cell surface display in Corynebacterium glutamicum using porin.

We have developed a novel cell surface display in Corynebacterium glutamicum using porin proteins as anchor proteins. Porins are localized at C. glutamicum mycolic acid layer and exist as a hexamer. We used alpha-amylase from Streptococcus bovis 148 (AmyA) as a model protein to be displayed on the C. glutamicum cell surface. AmyA was fused to the C terminus of the porins PorB, PorC, or PorH. Expression vectors using fused proteins under the control of the cspB promoter were constructed and introduced into the C. glutamicum Cm strain. Immunostaining microscopy and flow cytometric analysis revealed that PorB-AmyA, PorC-AmyA, and PorH-AmyA were displayed on the C. glutamicum cell surface. AmyA activity was only detected in the cell fraction of C. glutamicum cells that displayed AmyA fused to PorB, PorC or PorH and AmyA activity was not detected in the supernatants of C. glutamicum culture broths after 72 h cultivation. Thus, we have demonstrated that C. glutamicum porins are very efficient anchor proteins for protein display in C. glutamicum.

Direct production of cadaverine from soluble starch using Corynebacterium glutamicum coexpressing alpha-amylase and lysine decarboxylase.

Here, we demonstrated the one-step production of cadaverine from starch using a Corynebacterium glutamicum strain coexpressing Streptococcus bovis 148 alpha-amylase (AmyA) and Escherichia coli K-12 lysine decarboxylase (CadA). We constructed the E. coli-C. glutamicum shuttle vector, which produces CadA under the control of the high constitutive expression (HCE) promoter, and transformed this vector into C. glutamicum CSS secreting AmyA. The engineered C. glutamicum expressed both CadA and AmyA, which retained their activity. We performed cadaverine fermentation using 50 g/l soluble starch as the sole carbon source without pyridoxal-5'-phosphate, which is the coenzyme for CadA. C. glutamicum coexpressing AmyA and CadA successfully produced cadaverine from soluble starch and the yield of cadaverine was 23.4 mM after 21 h. CadA expression levels under the control of the HCE promoter were assumed to be sufficient to convert L-lysine to cadaverine, as there was no accumulation of L-lysine in the culture medium during fermentation. Thus, we demonstrated that C. glutamicum has great potential to produce cadaverine from biomass resources.

Direct production of L-lysine from raw corn starch by Corynebacterium glutamicum secreting Streptococcus bovis alpha-amylase using cspB promoter and signal sequence.

Corynebacterium glutamicum is an important microorganism in the industrial production of amino acids. We engineered a strain of C. glutamicum that secretes alpha-amylase from Streptococcus bovis 148 (AmyA) for the efficient utilization of raw starch. Among the promoters and signal sequences tested, those of cspB from C. glutamicum possessed the highest expression level. The fusion gene was introduced into the homoserine dehydrogenase gene locus on the chromosome by homologous recombination. L-Lysine fermentation was conducted using C. glutamicum secreting AmyA in the growth medium containing 50 g/l of raw corn starch as the sole carbon source at various temperatures in the range 30 to 40 degrees C. Efficient L-lysine production and raw starch degradation were achieved at 34 and 37 degrees C, respectively. The alpha-amylase activity using raw corn starch was more than 2.5 times higher than that using glucose as the sole carbon source during L-lysine fermentation. AmyA expression under the control of cspB promoter was assumed to be induced when raw starch was used as the sole carbon source. These results indicate that efficient simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of raw corn starch to L-lysine were achieved by C. glutamicum secreting AmyA using the cspB promoter and signal sequence.

Production of L-Lysine from starch by Corynebacterium glutamicum displaying alpha-amylase on its cell surface.

We engineered a Corynebacterium glutamicum strain displaying alpha-amylase from Streptococcus bovis 148 (AmyA) on its cell surface to produce amino acids directly from starch. We used PgsA from Bacillus subtilis as an anchor protein, and the N-terminus of alpha-amylase was fused to the PgsA. The genes of the fusion protein were integrated into the homoserine dehydrogenase gene locus on the chromosome by homologous recombination. L-Lysine fermentation was carried out using C. glutamicum displaying AmyA in the growth medium containing 50 g/l soluble starch as the sole carbon source. We performed L-lysine fermentation at various temperatures (30-40 degrees C) and pHs (6.0-7.0), as the optimal temperatures and pHs of AmyA and C. glutamicum differ significantly. The highest L-lysine yield was recorded at 30 degrees C and pH 7.0. The amount of soluble starch was reduced to 18.29 g/l, and 6.04 g/l L-lysine was produced in 24 h. The L-lysine yield obtained using soluble starch as the sole carbon source was higher than that using glucose as the sole carbon source after 24 h when the same amount of substrates was added. The results shown in the current study demonstrate that C. glutamicum displaying alpha-amylase has a potential to directly convert soluble starch to amino acids.

Display of active enzymes on the cell surface of Escherichia coli using PgsA anchor protein and their application to bioconversion.

We have developed a novel Escherichia coli cell surface display system by employing PgsA as an anchoring motif. In our display system, C-terminal fusion to PgsA anchor protein from Bacillus subtilis was used. The enzymes selected for display were alpha-amylase (AmyA) from Streptococcus bovis 148 and lipase B (CALB) from Candida antarctica. The molecular mass values of AmyA and CALB are approximately 77 and 34 kDa, respectively. The enzymes were displayed on the surface as a fusion protein with a FLAG peptide tag at the C terminus. Both the PgsA-AmyA-FLAG and PgsA-CALB-FLAG fusion proteins were shown to be displayed by immunofluorescence labeling using anti-FLAG antibody. The displayed enzymes were active forms, and AmyA and CALB activities reached 990 U/g (dry cell weight) and 4.6 U/g (dry cell weight), respectively. AmyA-displaying E. coli cells grew utilizing cornstarch as the sole carbon source, while CALB-displaying E. coli cells catalyzed enantioselective transesterification, indicating that they are effective whole-cell biocatalysts. Since a target enzyme with a size of 77 kDa and an industrially useful lipase have been successfully displayed on the cell surface of E. coli for the first time, PgsA protein is probably a useful anchoring motif to display various enzymes.