In vivo production of a novel glycoconjugate vaccine against Shigella flexneri 2a in recombinant Escherichia coli: identification of stimulating factors for in vivo glycosylation.

BACKGROUND: Glycoconjugated vaccines composed of polysaccharide antigens covalently linked to immunogenic carrier proteins have proved to belong to the most effective and safest vaccines for combating bacterial pathogens. The functional transfer of the N-glycosylation machinery from Campylobacter jejuni to the standard prokaryotic host Escherichia coli established a novel bioconjugation methodology termed bacterial glycoengineering. RESULTS: In this study, we report on the production of a new recombinant glycoconjugate vaccine against Shigella flexneri 2a representing the major serotype for global outbreaks of shigellosis. We demonstrate that S. flexneri 2a O-polysaccharides can be transferred to a detoxified variant of Pseudomonas aeruginosa carrier protein exotoxin A (EPA) by the C. jejuni oligosaccharyltransferase PglB, resulting in glycosylated EPA-2a. Moreover, we optimized the in vivo production of this novel vaccine by identification and quantitative analysis of critical process parameters for glycoprotein synthesis. It was found that sequential induction of oligosaccharyltransferase PglB and carrier protein EPA increased the specific productivity of EPA-2a by a factor of 1.6. Furthermore, by the addition of 10 g/L of the monosaccharide N-acetylglucosamine during induction, glycoconjugate vaccine yield was boosted up to 3.1-fold. The optimum concentration of Mg2+ ions for N-glycan transfer was determined to be 10 mM. Finally, optimized parameters were transferred to high cell density cultures with a 46-fold increase of overall yield of glycoconjugate compared to the one in initial shake flask production. CONCLUSION: The present study is the first attempt to identify stimulating parameters for improved productivity of S. flexneri 2a bioconjugates. Optimization of glycosylation efficiency will ultimately foster the transfer of lab-scale expression to a cost-effective in vivo production process for a glycoconjugate vaccine against S. flexneri 2a in E. coli. This study is an important step towards this goal and provides a starting point for further optimization studies.

A red/far-red light-responsive bi-stable toggle switch to control gene expression in mammalian cells.

Growth and differentiation of multicellular systems is orchestrated by spatially restricted gene expression programs in specialized subpopulations. The targeted manipulation of such processes by synthetic tools with high-spatiotemporal resolution could, therefore, enable a deepened understanding of developmental processes and open new opportunities in tissue engineering. Here, we describe the first red/far-red light-triggered gene switch for mammalian cells for achieving gene expression control in time and space. We show that the system can reversibly be toggled between stable on- and off-states using short light pulses at 660 or 740 nm. Red light-induced gene expression was shown to correlate with the applied photon number and was compatible with different mammalian cell lines, including human primary cells. The light-induced expression kinetics were quantitatively analyzed by a mathematical model. We apply the system for the spatially controlled engineering of angiogenesis in chicken embryos. The system's performance combined with cell- and tissue-compatible regulating red light will enable unprecedented spatiotemporally controlled molecular interventions in mammalian cells, tissues and organisms.

A general strategy for the production of difficult-to-express inducer-dependent bacterial repressor proteins in Escherichia coli.

Inducer-dependent prokaryotic transcriptional repressor proteins that originally evolved to orchestrate the transcriptome with intracellular and extracellular metabolite pools, have become universal tools in synthetic biology, drug discovery, diagnostics and functional genomics. Production of the repressor proteins is often limited due to inhibiting effects on the production host and requires iterative process optimization for each individual repressor. At the example of the Streptomyces pristinaespiralis-derived streptogramin-dependent repressor PIP, the expression of which was shown to inhibit growth of Escherichia coli BL21*, we demonstrate that the addition of the PIP-specific streptogramin antibiotic pristinamycin I neutralizes the growth-inhibiting effect and results in >100-fold increased PIP titers. The yield of PIP was further increased 2.5-fold by the engineering of a new E. coli host suitable for the production of growth-inhibiting proteins encoded by an unfavorable codon usage. PIP produced in the presence of pristinamycin I was purified and was shown to retain the antibiotic-dependent binding to its operator pir as demonstrated by a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based approach. At the example of the macrolide-, tetracycline- and arsenic-dependent repressors MphR(A), TetR and ArsR, we further demonstrate that the production yields can be increased 2- to 3-fold by the addition of the cognate inducer molecules erythromycin, tetracycline and As(3+), respectively. Therefore, the addition of inducer molecules specific to the target repressor protein seems to be a general strategy to increase the yield of this interesting protein class.

Biosynthesis of poly(4-hydroxybutyrate) in recombinant Escherichia coli grown on glycerol is stimulated by propionic acid.

One of the most promising polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) for medical applications is poly(4-hydroxybutyrate) (P4HB) due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility and mechanical properties. Currently, the major hurdle for expanding P4HB applications is the production and recovery cost. In this study, we investigated the stimulating factors for P4HB biosynthesis with the ultimate goal of reducing production cost. We found that addition of propionic acid to the culture medium stimulates the P4HB accumulation in recombinant Escherichia coli JM109 grown on glycerol. This stimulating effect was significantly weakened by addition of exogenous methionine, whereas it was not influenced by addition of cysteine. These results suggest that propionic acid enhances P4HB synthesis by reducing the intracellular methionine pool. Utilizing these findings for P4HB production in batch cultures on glycerol, the volumetric yield of P4HB could be improved 4 fold from 0.9g/L to 3.7g/L by adding 2g/L propionic acid into the medium.

Tyrosinase-catalyzed site-specific immobilization of engineered C-phycocyanin to surface.

Enzymatic crosslinking of proteins is often limited by the steric availability of the target residues, as of tyrosyl side chains in the case of tyrosinase. Carrying an N-terminal peptide-tag containing two tyrosine residues, the fluorescent protein C-phycocyanin HisCPC from Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 was crosslinked to fluorescent high-molecular weight forms with tyrosinase. Crosslinking with tyrosinase in the presence of L-tyrosine produced non fluorescent high-molecular weight products. Incubated in the presence of tyrosinase, HisCPC could also be immobilized to amino-modified polystyrene beads thus conferring a blue fluorescence. Crosslinking and immobilization were site-specific as both processes required the presence of the N-terminal peptide in HisCPC.

A quantitative ratiometric sensor for time-resolved analysis of auxin dynamics.

Time-resolved quantitative analysis of auxin-mediated processes in plant cells is as of yet limited. By applying a synergistic mammalian and plant synthetic biology approach, we have developed a novel ratiometric luminescent biosensor with wide applicability in the study of auxin metabolism, transport, and signalling. The sensitivity and kinetic properties of our genetically encoded biosensor open new perspectives for the analysis of highly complex auxin dynamics in plant growth and development.

Synthetic gene networks as blueprint for smart hydrogels.

The rapidly emerging ability to design and construct synthetic gene networks in mammalian cells is based on the availability of mutually compatible genetic switches that enable the time-dependent induction of transgene expression in response to the dose of an externally applied stimulus. As these genetic switches are inherently compatible with mammalian cell physiology, they are as well predestined to control the functionality of cell-free synthetic devices within an overall physiologic background. In this chapter, we describe how a genetic switch that was originally designed for gene therapeutic studies can be applied in materials science to design and construct a biohybrid hydrogel that can be used to release a therapeutic growth factor in response to an externally applied stimulus for controlling cell fate and function in a time- and space-resolved manner.

Rewiring and dosing of systems modules as a design approach for synthetic mammalian signaling networks.

Modularly structured signaling networks coordinate the fate and function of complex biological systems. Each component in the network performs a discrete computational operation, but when connected to each other intricate functionality emerges. Here we study such an architecture by connecting auxin signaling modules and inducible protein biotinylation systems with transcriptional control systems to construct synthetic mammalian high-detect, low-detect and band-detect networks that translate overlapping gradients of inducer molecules into distinct gene expression patterns. Guided by a mathematical model we apply fundamental computational operations like conjunction or addition to rewire individual building blocks to qualitatively and quantitatively program the way the overall network interprets graded input signals. The design principles described in this study might serve as a conceptual blueprint for the development of next-generation mammalian synthetic gene networks in fundamental and translational research.

Synthetic biology in the analysis and engineering of signaling processes.

Synthetic biology as the discipline of reconstructing natural and designing novel biological systems is gaining increasing impact in signaling science. This review article provides insight into synthetic approaches for analyzing and synthesizing signaling processes starting with strategies into how natural and pathological signaling pathways can be reconstructed in an evolutionary distant host to study their topology and function while avoiding interference with the original host background. In the second part we integrate synthetic strategies in the rewiring of signaling systems at the nucleic acid and protein level to reprogram cellular functions for biotechnological applications. The last part focuses on synthetic inter-cell and inter-species signaling devices and their integration into synthetic ecosystems to study fundamental mechanisms governing the co-existence of species. We finally address current bottlenecks in the (re-)design of signaling pathways and discuss future directions in signaling-related synthetic biology.