High-yield porphyrin production through metabolic engineering and biocatalysis.

Porphyrins and their derivatives find extensive applications in medicine, food, energy and materials. In this study, we produced porphyrin compounds by combining Rhodobacter sphaeroides as an efficient cell factory with enzymatic catalysis. Genome-wide CRISPRi-based screening in R. sphaeroides identifies hemN as a target for improved coproporphyrin III (CPIII) production, and exploiting phosphorylation of PrrA further improves the production of bioactive CPIII to 16.5 g L-1 by fed-batch fermentation. Subsequent screening and engineering high-activity metal chelatases and coproheme decarboxylase results in the synthesis of various metalloporphyrins, including heme and the anti-tumor agent zincphyrin. After pilot-scale fermentation (200 L) and setting up the purification process for CPIII (purity >95%), we scaled up the production of heme and zincphyrin through enzymatic catalysis in a 5-L bioreactor, with CPIII achieving respective enzyme conversion rates of 63% and 98% and yielding 10.8 g L-1 and 21.3 g L-1, respectively. Our strategy offers a solution for high-yield bioproduction of heme and other valuable porphyrins with substantial industrial and medical applications.

An in vitro CRISPR-Cas12a-mediated protocol for direct cloning of large DNA fragments.

Large biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) cloning is important for discovering natural product-based drugs and remains challenging in high GC content microorganisms (e.g., Actinobacteria). Here, we present an in vitro CRISPR-Cas12a-mediated protocol for direct cloning of large DNA fragments. We describe steps for crRNA design and preparation, genomic DNA isolation, and CRISPR-Cas12a cleavage and capture plasmid construction and linearization. We then detail target BGC and plasmid DNA ligation and transformation and screening for positive clones. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Liang et al.1.

Systems Analysis of Highly Multiplexed CRISPR-Base Editing in Streptomycetes.

CRISPR tools, especially Cas9n-sgRNA guided cytidine deaminase base editors such as CRISPR-BEST, have dramatically simplified genetic manipulation of streptomycetes. One major advantage of CRISPR base editing technology is the possibility to multiplex experiments in genomically instable species. Here, we demonstrate scaled up Csy4 based multiplexed genome editing using CRISPR-mcBEST in Streptomyces coelicolor. We evaluated the system by simultaneously targeting 9, 18, and finally all 28 predicted specialized metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters in a single experiment. We present important insights into the performance of Csy4 based multiplexed genome editing at different scales. Using multiomics analysis, we investigated the systems wide effects of such extensive editing experiments and revealed great potentials and important bottlenecks of CRISPR-mcBEST. The presented analysis provides crucial data and insights toward the development of multiplexed base editing as a novel paradigm for high throughput engineering of Streptomyces chassis and beyond.

Synthetic Biology Facilitates Antimicrobials Discovery.

We are currently facing two big global challenges: antibiotics shortage and multidrug resistance [...].

Optogenetic tools for microbial synthetic biology.

Chemical induction is one of the most common modalities used to manipulate gene expression in living systems. However, chemical induction can be toxic or expensive that compromise the economic feasibility when it comes to industrial-scale synthetic biology applications. These complications have driven the pursuit of better induction systems. Optogenetics technique can be a solution as it not only enables dynamic control with unprecedented spatiotemporal precision but also is inexpensive and eco-friendlier. The optogenetic technique harnesses natural light-sensing modules that are genetically encodable and re-programmable in various hosts. By further engineering these modules to connect with the microbial regulatory machinery, gene expression and protein activity can be finely tuned simply through light irradiation. Recent works on applying optogenetics to microbial synthetic biology have yielded remarkable achievements. To further expand the usability of optogenetics, more optogenetic tools with greater portability that are compatible with different microbial hosts need to be developed. This review focuses on non-opsin optogenetic systems and the current state of optogenetic advancements in microbes, by showcasing the different designs and functions of optogenetic tools, followed by an insight into the optogenetic approaches used to circumvent challenges in synthetic biology.

Activating cryptic biosynthetic gene cluster through a CRISPR-Cas12a-mediated direct cloning approach.

Direct cloning of biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) from microbial genomes facilitates natural product-based drug discovery. Here, by combining Cas12a and the advanced features of bacterial artificial chromosome library construction, we developed a fast yet efficient in vitro platform for directly capturing large BGCs, named CAT-FISHING (CRISPR/Cas12a-mediated fast direct biosynthetic gene cluster cloning). As demonstrations, several large BGCs from different actinomycetal genomic DNA samples were efficiently captured by CAT-FISHING, the largest of which was 145 kb with 75% GC content. Furthermore, the directly cloned, 110 kb long, cryptic polyketide encoding BGC from Micromonospora sp. 181 was then heterologously expressed in a Streptomyces chassis. It turned out to be a new macrolactam compound, marinolactam A, which showed promising anticancer activity. Our results indicate that CAT-FISHING is a powerful method for complicated BGC cloning, and we believe that it would be an important asset to the entire community of natural product-based drug discovery.

A versatile genetic engineering toolkit for E. coli based on CRISPR-prime editing.

CRISPR base editing is a powerful method to engineer bacterial genomes. However, it restricts editing to single-nucleotide substitutions. Here, to address this challenge, we adapt a CRISPR-Prime Editing-based, DSB-free, versatile, and single-nucleotide resolution genetic manipulation toolkit for prokaryotes. It can introduce substitutions, deletions, insertions, and the combination thereof, both in plasmids and the chromosome of E. coli with high fidelity. Notably, under optimal conditions, the efficiency of 1-bp deletions reach up to 40%. Moreover, deletions of up to 97 bp and insertions up to 33 bp were successful with the toolkit in E. coli, however, efficiencies dropped sharply with increased fragment sizes. With a second guide RNA, our toolkit can achieve multiplexed editing albeit with low efficiency. Here we report not only a useful addition to the genome engineering arsenal for E. coli, but also a potential basis for the development of similar toolkits for other bacteria.

Integrating PCR-free amplification and synergistic sensing for ultrasensitive and rapid CRISPR/Cas12a-based SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection.

Antigen detection provides particularly valuable information for medical diagnoses; however, the current detection methods are less sensitive and accurate than nucleic acid analysis. The combination of CRISPR/Cas12a and aptamers provides a new detection paradigm, but sensitive sensing and stable amplification in antigen detection remain challenging. Here, we present a PCR-free multiple trigger dsDNA tandem-based signal amplification strategy and a de novo designed dual aptamer synergistic sensing strategy. Integration of these two strategies endowed the CRISPR/Cas12a and aptamer-based method with ultra-sensitive, fast, and stable antigen detection. In a demonstration of this method, the limit of detection was at the single virus level (0.17 fM, approximately two copies/µL) in SARS-CoV-2 antigen nucleocapsid protein analysis of saliva or serum samples. The entire procedure required only 20 min. Given our system's simplicity and modular setup, we believe that it could be adapted reasonably easily for general applications in CRISPR/Cas12a-aptamer-based detection.

Hyper-Synergistic Antifungal Activity of Rapamycin and Peptide-Like Compounds against Candida albicans Orthogonally via Tor1 Kinase.

Candida albicans is a life-threatening, opportunistic fungal pathogen with a high mortality rate, especially within the immunocompromised populations. Multidrug resistance combined with limited antifungal drugs even worsens the situation. Given the facts that the current drug discovery strategies fail to deliver sufficient antifungals for the emerging multidrug resistance, we urgently need to develop novel approaches. By systematically investigating what caused the different antifungal activity of rapamycin in RPMI 1640 and YPD, we discovered that peptide-like compounds can generate a hyper-synergistic antifungal effect with rapamycin on both azole-resistant and sensitive clinical C. albicans isolates. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of rapamycin reaches as low as 2.14 nM (2-9 µg/mL), distinguishing this drug combination as a hyper-synergism by having a fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) index ≤ 0.05 from the traditional defined synergism with an FIC index < 0.5. Further studies reveal that this hyper-synergism orthogonally targets the protein Tor1 and affects the TOR signaling pathway in C. albicans, very likely without crosstalk to the stress response, Ras/cAMP/PKA, or calcineurin signaling pathways. These results lead to a novel strategy of controlling drug resistant C. albicans infection in the immunocompromised populations. Instead of prophylactically administering other antifungals with undesirable side-effects for extended durations, we now only need to coadminister some nontoxic peptide additives. The novel antifungal strategy approached in this study not only provides a new therapeutic method to control fungal infections in rapamycin-taking immunocompromised patients but also mitigates the immunosuppressive side-effects of rapamycin, repurposing rapamycin as an antifungal agent with wide applications.

A versatile biosensing platform coupling CRISPR-Cas12a and aptamers for detection of diverse analytes.

Rapid and sensitive detection of various analytes is in high demand. Apart from its application in genome editing, CRISPR-Cas also shows promises in nucleic acid detection applications. To further exploit the potential of CRISPR-Cas for detection of diverse analytes, we present a versatile biosensing platform that couples the excellent affinity of aptamers for broad-range analytes with the collateral single-strand DNA cleavage activity of CRISPR-Cas12a. We demonstrated that the biosensors developed by this platform can be used to detect protein and small molecule in human serum with a complicated background, i.e., the tumor marker alpha fetoprotein and cocaine with the detection limits of 0.07 fmol/L and 0.34 µmol/L, respectively, highlighting the advantages of simplicity, sensitivity, short detection time, and low cost compared with the state-of-the-art biosensing approaches. Altogether, this biosensing platform with plug-and-play design show great potential in the detection of diverse analytes.

Berberine reverses multidrug resistance in Candida albicans by hijacking the drug efflux pump Mdr1p.

Clinical use of antimicrobials faces great challenges from the emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens. The overexpression of drug efflux pumps is one of the major contributors to multidrug resistance (MDR). Reversing the function of drug efflux pumps is a promising approach to overcome MDR. In the life-threatening fungal pathogen Candida albicans, the major facilitator superfamily (MFS) transporter Mdr1p can excrete many structurally unrelated antifungals, leading to MDR. Here we report a counterintuitive case of reversing MDR in C. albicans by using a natural product berberine to hijack the overexpressed Mdr1p for its own importation. Moreover, we illustrate that the imported berberine accumulates in mitochondria and compromises the mitochondrial function by impairing mitochondrial membrane potential and mitochondrial Complex I. This results in the selective elimination of Mdr1p overexpressed C. albicans cells. Furthermore, we show that berberine treatment can prolong the mean survival time of mice with blood-borne dissemination of Mdr1p overexpressed multidrug-resistant candidiasis. This study provides a potential direction of novel anti-MDR drug discovery by screening for multidrug efflux pump converters.

CRISPR-Cas9, CRISPRi and CRISPR-BEST-mediated genetic manipulation in streptomycetes.

Streptomycetes are prominent sources of bioactive natural products, but metabolic engineering of the natural products of these organisms is greatly hindered by relatively inefficient genetic manipulation approaches. New advances in genome editing techniques, particularly CRISPR-based tools, have revolutionized genetic manipulation of many organisms, including actinomycetes. We have developed a comprehensive CRISPR toolkit that includes several variations of 'classic' CRISPR-Cas9 systems, along with CRISPRi and CRISPR-base editing systems (CRISPR-BEST) for streptomycetes. Here, we provide step-by-step protocols for designing and constructing the CRISPR plasmids, transferring these plasmids to the target streptomycetes, and identifying correctly edited clones. Our CRISPR toolkit can be used to generate random-sized deletion libraries, introduce small indels, generate in-frame deletions of specific target genes, reversibly suppress gene transcription, and substitute single base pairs in streptomycete genomes. Furthermore, the toolkit includes a Csy4-based multiplexing option to introduce multiple edits in a single experiment. The toolkit can be easily extended to other actinomycetes. With our protocol, it takes <10 d to inactivate a target gene, which is much faster than alternative protocols.

Designing sgRNAs for CRISPR-BEST base editing applications with CRISPy-web 2.0.

CRISPR/Cas9 systems are an established tool in genome engineering. As double strand breaks caused by the standard Cas9-based knock-out techniques can be problematic in some organisms, new systems were developed that can efficiently create knock-outs without causing double strand breaks to elegantly sidestep these issues. The recently published CRISPR-BEST base editor system for actinobacteria is built around a C to T or A to G base exchange. These base editing systems however require additional constraints to be considered for designing the sgRNAs. Here, we present an updated version of the interactive CRISPy-web single guide RNA design tool https://crispy.secondarymetabolites.org/that was built to support "classical" CRISPR and now also CRISPR-BEST workflows.

An aurora of natural products-based drug discovery is coming.

Natural products (NPs), a nature's reservoir possessing enormous structural and functional diversity far beyond the current ability of chemical synthesis, are now proving themselves as most wonderful gifts from mother nature for human beings. Many of them have been used successfully as medicines, as well as the most important sources of drug leads, food additives, and many industry relevant products for millennia. Most notably, more than half of the antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs currently in use are, or derived from, natural products. However, the speed and outputs of NP-based drug discovery has been slowing down dramatically after the fruitful harvest of the "low-hanging fruit" during the golden age of 1950s-1960s. With recent scientific advances combining metabolic sciences and technology, multi-omics, big data, combinatorial biosynthesis, synthetic biology, genome editing technology (such as CRISPR), artificial intelligence (AI), and 3D printing, the "high-hanging fruit" is becoming more and more accessible with reduced costs. We are now more and more confident that a new age of natural products discovery is dawning.

Programmable polyketide biosynthesis platform for production of aromatic compounds in yeast.

To accelerate the shift to bio-based production and overcome complicated functional implementation of natural and artificial biosynthetic pathways to industry relevant organisms, development of new, versatile, bio-based production platforms is required. Here we present a novel yeast-based platform for biosynthesis of bacterial aromatic polyketides. The platform is based on a synthetic polyketide synthase system enabling a first demonstration of bacterial aromatic polyketide biosynthesis in a eukaryotic host.

Dual-function chromogenic screening-based CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system for actinomycetes.

Actinobacteria are one of the most important sources of pharmaceutically valuable and industrially relevant secondary metabolites. Modern genome mining reveals that the potential for secondary metabolite production of actinomycetes has been underestimated. Recently, the establishment of CRISPR/Cas9-based genetic manipulation approaches in actinomycetes opened a new era for genome engineering of this type of organism. Compared with the traditional methods, the application of CRISPR/Cas9 shows several advantages in actinomycetes including higher efficiency and ease of operation. However, the screening process for the correctly edited mutants and the plasmid curing are still time- and labor-intensive. To address this problem, we developed an updated version of the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing system for actinomycetes, based on two chromogenic reporter systems (GusA and IdgS). Our system facilitates both processes of positive clone screening and plasmid curing. Here, we demonstrate by three case studies in both model actinomycetes and non-model actinomycetes that this system is faster and more efficient. We performed the deletion of one single gene, actIORFI (SCO5087 of the actinorhodin gene cluster) in Streptomyces coelicolor M145, one small-size (5.5 kb) gene cluster (orange-pigmented carotenoid gene cluster), and one relatively large-size (61 kb) gene cluster (abyssomicin gene cluster) in Verrucosispora sp. MS100137. The results presented in this study indicate that this updated CRISPR/Cas9 system employing chromogenic reporters is versatile and broadly applicable in genome engineering of actinomycetes, not only for the largest genus Streptomyces.