Analysis of protein secretion in Bacillus subtilis by combining a secretion stress biosensor strain with an in vivo split GFP assay.

BACKGROUND: Bacillus subtilis is one of the workhorses in industrial biotechnology and well known for its secretion potential. Efficient secretion of recombinant proteins still requires extensive optimization campaigns and screening with activity-based methods. However, not every protein can be detected by activity-based screening. We therefore developed a combined online monitoring system, consisting of an in vivo split GFP assay for activity-independent target detection and an mCherry-based secretion stress biosensor. The split GFP assay is based on the fusion of a target protein to the eleventh ß-sheet of sfGFP, which can complement a truncated sfGFP that lacks this ß-sheet named GFP1-10. The secretion stress biosensor makes use of the CssRS two component quality control system, which upregulates expression of mCherry in the htrA locus thereby allowing a fluorescence readout of secretion stress. RESULTS: The biosensor strain B. subtilis PAL5 was successfully constructed by exchanging the protease encoding gene htrA with mCherry via CRISPR/Cas9. The Fusarium solani pisi cutinase Cut fused to the GFP11 tag (Cut11) was used as a model enzyme to determine the stress response upon secretion mediated by signal peptides SPPel, SPEpr and SPBsn obtained from naturally secreted proteins of B. subtilis. An in vivo split GFP assay was developed, where purified GFP1-10 is added to the culture broth. By combining both methods, an activity-independent high-throughput method was created, that allowed optimization of Cut11 secretion. Using the split GFP-based detection assay, we demonstrated a good correlation between the amount of secreted cutinase and the enzymatic activity. Additionally, we screened a signal peptide library and identified new signal peptide variants that led to improved secretion while maintaining low stress levels. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that the combination of a split GFP-based detection assay for secreted proteins with a secretion stress biosensor strain enables both, online detection of extracellular target proteins and identification of bottlenecks during protein secretion in B. subtilis. In general, the system described here will also enable to monitor the secretion stress response provoked by using inducible promoters governing the expression of different enzymes.

Accelerated strain construction and characterization of C. glutamicum protein secretion by laboratory automation.

Secretion of bacterial proteins into the culture medium simplifies downstream processing by avoiding cell disruption for target protein purification. However, a suitable signal peptide for efficient secretion needs to be identified, and currently, there are no tools available to predict optimal combinations of signal peptides and target proteins. The selection of such a combination is influenced by several factors, including protein biosynthesis efficiency and cultivation conditions, which both can have a significant impact on secretion performance. As a result, a large number of combinations must be tested. Therefore, we have developed automated workflows allowing for targeted strain construction and secretion screening using two platforms. Key advantages of this experimental setup include lowered hands-on time and increased throughput. In this study, the automated workflows were established for the heterologous production of Fusarium solani f. sp. pisi cutinase in Corynebacterium glutamicum. The target protein was monitored in culture supernatants via enzymatic activity and split GFP assay. Varying spacer lengths between the Shine-Dalgarno sequence and the start codon of Bacillus subtilis signal peptides were tested. Consistent with previous work on the secretory cutinase production in B. subtilis, a ribosome binding site with extended spacer length to up to 12 nt, which likely slows down translation initiation, does not necessarily lead to poorer cutinase secretion by C. glutamicum. The best performing signal peptides for cutinase secretion with a standard spacer length were identified in a signal peptide screening. Additional insights into the secretion process were gained by monitoring secretion stress using the C. glutamicum K9 biosensor strain. KEY POINTS: • Automated workflows for strain construction and screening of protein secretion • Comparison of spacer, signal peptide, and host combinations for cutinase secretion • Signal peptide screening for secretion by C. glutamicum using the split GFP assay.

Improved pEKEx2-derived expression vectors for tightly controlled production of recombinant proteins in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

The Escherichia coli/Corynebacterium glutamicum shuttle vector pEKEx2 is an IPTG-inducible expression vector that has been used successfully for the synthesis of numerous proteins in C. glutamicum. We discovered that the leaky gene expression observed for pEKEx2-derived plasmids relates to reduced functionality of the plasmid-encoded repressor LacI carrying a modified C-terminus, while duplicate DNA sequences in the pEKEx2 backbone contribute to plasmid instability. We constructed the pEKEx2-derivatives pPBEx2 and pPREx2, which harbor a restored lacI gene and which lack the unnecessary duplicate DNA sequences. pPREx2 in addition enables fusion of target genes to a C-terminal Strep-tag II coding region for easy protein detection and purification. In the absence of inducer, the novel vectors exhibit tight gene repression in C. glutamicum, as shown for the secretory production of Fusarium solani pisi cutinase and the cytosolic production of green fluorescent protein and C. glutamicum myo-inositol dehydrogenase. Undesired heterogeneity amongst clones expressing cutinase from pEKEx2 was attributed to the loss of a vector fragment containing the cutinase gene, which likely occurred via homologous recombination of the identical flanking DNA sequences. Such loss was not observed for pPBEx2. Using pPREx2, IolG-Strep was successfully produced and purified to homogeneity by Strep-Tactin affinity chromatography, obtaining 1.5 mg IolG with a specific activity of 27 µmol·min-1·(mg protein)-1 from 100 mL culture. The tight gene repression in the absence of inducer and the improved plasmid stability make expression vectors pPBEx2/pPREx2 attractive alternatives to the available molecular tools for genetic manipulation and high-level production of recombinant proteins in C. glutamicum.

A secretion biosensor for monitoring Sec-dependent protein export in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the industrial workhorse Corynebacterium glutamicum has gained increasing interest as a host organism for the secretory production of heterologous proteins. Generally, the yield of a target protein in the culture supernatant depends on a multitude of interdependent biological and bioprocess parameters which have to be optimized. So far, the monitoring of such optimization processes depends on the availability of a direct assay for the respective target protein that can be handled also in high throughput approaches. Since simple assays, such as standard enzymatic activity assays, are not always at hand, the availability of a general protein secretion biosensor is highly desirable. RESULTS: High level secretion of proteins via the Sec protein export pathway leads to secretion stress, a phenomenon that is thought to be caused by the accumulation of incompletely or misfolded proteins at the membrane-cell envelope interface. We have analyzed the transcriptional responses of C. glutamicum to the secretory production of two different heterologous proteins and found that, in both cases, the expression of the gene encoding a homologue of the extracytosolic HtrA protease was highly upregulated. Based on this finding, a C. glutamicum Sec secretion biosensor strain was constructed in which the htrA gene on the chromosome was replaced by the eyfp gene. The fluorescence of the resulting reporter strain responded to the secretion of different heterologous proteins (cutinase from Fusarium solani pisi and alkaline phosphatase PhoA from Escherichia coli) in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, three differently efficient signal peptides for the secretory production of the cutinase could be differentiated by the biosensor signal. Furthermore, we have shown that an efficient signal peptide can be separated from a poor signal peptide by using the biosensor signal of the respective cells in fluorescence activated cell sorting experiments. CONCLUSIONS: We have succeeded in the construction of a C. glutamicum biosensor strain that allows for the monitoring of Sec-dependent secretion of heterologous proteins in a dose-dependent manner, independent of a direct assay for the desired target protein.

The early mature part of bacterial twin-arginine translocation (Tat) precursor proteins contributes to TatBC receptor binding.

The twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway transports folded proteins across bacterial membranes. Tat precursor proteins possess a conserved twin-arginine (RR) motif in their signal peptides that is involved in the binding of the proteins to the membrane-associated TatBC receptor complex. In addition, the hydrophobic region in the Tat signal peptides also contributes to TatBC binding, but whether regions beyond the signal-peptide cleavage site are involved in this process is unknown. Here, we analyzed the contribution of the early mature protein part of the Escherichia coli trimethylamine N-oxide reductase (TorA) to productive TatBC receptor binding. We identified substitutions in the 30 amino acids immediately following the TorA signal peptide (30aa-region) that restored export of a transport-defective TorA[KQ]-30aa-MalE precursor, in which the RR residues had been replaced by a lysine-glutamine pair. Some of these substitutions increased the hydrophobicity of the N-terminal part of the 30aa-region and thereby likely enhanced hydrophobic substrate-receptor interactions within the hydrophobic TatBC substrate-binding cavity. Another class of substitutions increased the positive net charge of the region's C-terminal part, presumably leading to strengthened electrostatic interactions between the mature substrate part and the cytoplasmic TatBC regions. Furthermore, we identified substitutions in the C-terminal domains of TatB following the transmembrane segment that restored transport of various transport-defective TorA-MalE derivatives. Some of these substitutions most likely affected the orientation or conformation of the flexible, carboxy-proximal helices of TatB. Therefore, we propose that a tight accommodation of the folded mature region by TatB contributes to productive binding of Tat substrates to TatBC.

Combinatorial impact of Sec signal peptides from Bacillus subtilis and bioprocess conditions on heterologous cutinase secretion by Corynebacterium glutamicum.

The impact of Sec signal peptides (SPs) from Bacillus subtilis in combination with isopropyl-ß- d-1-thiogalactopyranoside concentration and feeding profile was investigated for heterologous protein secretion performance by Corynebacterium glutamicum using cutinase as model enzyme. Based on a comprehensive data set of about 150 bench-scale bioreactor cultivations in fed-batch mode and choosing the cutinase yield as objective, it was shown that relative secretion performance for bioprocesses remains very similar, irrespective of the applied SP enabling Sec-mediated cutinase secretion. However, to achieve the maximal absolute cutinase yield, careful adjustment of bioprocess conditions was found to be necessary. A model-based, two-step multiple regression approach resembled the collected data in a comprehensive way. The corresponding results suggest that the choice of the heterologous Sec SP and its interaction with the adjusted exponential feeding profile is highly relevant to maximize absolute cutinase yield in this study. For example, the impact of Sec SP is high at low growth rates and low at high growth rates. However, promising Sec SPs could be inferred from less complex batch cultivations. The extensive data were also evaluated in terms of cutinase productivity, highlighting the well-known trade-off between yield and productivity in bioprocess development in detail. Conclusively, only the right combination of target protein, Sec SP, and bioprocess conditions is the key to success.

The h-region of twin-arginine signal peptides supports productive binding of bacterial Tat precursor proteins to the TatBC receptor complex.

The twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway transports folded proteins across bacterial membranes. Tat precursor proteins possess a conserved twin-arginine (RR) motif in their signal peptides that is involved in their binding to the Tat translocase, but some facets of this interaction remain unclear. Here, we investigated the role of the hydrophobic (h-) region of the Escherichia coli trimethylamine N-oxide reductase (TorA) signal peptide in TatBC receptor binding in vivo and in vitro We show that besides the RR motif, a minimal, functional h-region in the signal peptide is required for Tat-dependent export in Escherichia coli Furthermore, we identified mutations in the h-region that synergistically suppressed the export defect of a TorA[KQ]-30aa-MalE Tat reporter protein in which the RR motif was replaced with a lysine-glutamine pair. Strikingly, all suppressor mutations increased the hydrophobicity of the h-region. By systematically replacing a neutral residue in the h-region with various amino acids, we detected a positive correlation between the hydrophobicity of the h-region and the translocation efficiency of the resulting reporter variants. In vitro cross-linking of residues located in the periplasmically-oriented part of the TatBC receptor to TorA[KQ]-30aa-MalE reporter variants harboring a more hydrophobic h-region in their signal peptides confirmed that unlike in TorA[KQ]-30aa-MalE with an unaltered h-region, the mutated reporters moved deep into the TatBC-binding cavity. Our results clearly indicate that, besides the Tat motif, the h-region of the Tat signal peptides is another important binding determinant that significantly contributes to the productive interaction of Tat precursor proteins with the TatBC receptor complex.

The three-component system EsrISR regulates a cell envelope stress response in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

When the cell envelope integrity is compromised, bacteria trigger signaling cascades resulting in the production of proteins that counteract these extracytoplasmic stresses. Here, we show that the two-component system EsrSR regulates a cell envelope stress response in the Actinobacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum. The sensor kinase EsrS possesses an amino-terminal phage shock protein C (PspC) domain, a property that sets EsrSR apart from all other two-component systems characterized so far. An integral membrane protein, EsrI, whose gene is divergently transcribed to the esrSR gene locus and which interestingly also possesses a PspC domain, acts as an inhibitor of EsrSR under non-stress conditions. The resulting EsrISR three-component system is activated among others by antibiotics inhibiting the lipid II cycle, such as bacitracin and vancomycin, and it orchestrates a broad regulon including the esrI-esrSR gene locus itself, genes encoding heat shock proteins, ABC transporters, and several putative membrane-associated or secreted proteins of unknown function. Among those, the ABC transporter encoded by cg3322-3320 was shown to be directly involved in bacitracin resistance of C. glutamicum. Since similar esrI-esrSR loci are present in a large number of actinobacterial genomes, EsrISR represents a novel type of stress-responsive system whose components are highly conserved in the phylum Actinobacteria.

Signal peptides for recombinant protein secretion in bacterial expression systems.

The secretion of biotechnologically or pharmaceutically relevant recombinant proteins into the culture supernatant of a bacterial expression host greatly facilitates their downstream processing and significantly reduces the production costs. The first step during the secretion of a desired target protein into the growth medium is its transport across the cytoplasmic membrane. In bacteria, two major export pathways, the general secretion or Sec pathway and the twin-arginine translocation or Tat pathway, exist for the transport of proteins across the plasma membrane. The routing into one of these alternative protein export systems requires the fusion of a Sec- or Tat-specific signal peptide to the amino-terminal end of the desired target protein. Since signal peptides, besides being required for the targeting to and membrane translocation by the respective protein translocases, also have additional influences on the biosynthesis, the folding kinetics, and the stability of the respective target proteins, it is not possible so far to predict in advance which signal peptide will perform best in the context of a given target protein and a given bacterial expression host. As outlined in this review, the most promising way to find the optimal signal peptide for a desired protein is to screen the largest possible diversity of signal peptides, either generated by signal peptide variation using large signal peptide libraries or, alternatively, by optimization of a given signal peptide using site-directed or random mutagenesis strategies.

Use of a Sec signal peptide library from Bacillus subtilis for the optimization of cutinase secretion in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

BACKGROUND: Technical bulk enzymes represent a huge market, and the extracellular production of such enzymes is favorable due to lowered cost for product recovery. Protein secretion can be achieved via general secretion (Sec) pathway. Specific sequences, signal peptides (SPs), are necessary to direct the target protein into the translocation machinery. For example, >150 Sec-specific SPs have been identified for Bacillus subtilis alone. As the best SP for a target protein of choice cannot be predicted a priori, screening of homologous SPs has been shown to be a powerful tool for different expression organisms. While SP libraries between closely related species were successfully applied to optimize recombinant protein secretion, this was not investigated for distantly related species. Therefore, in this study a Sec SP library from low-GC firmicutes B. subtilis is investigated to optimize protein secretion in high-GC actinobacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum using cutinase from Fusarium solani pisi as model protein. RESULTS: A homologous SP library (~150 SP) for recombinant cutinase secretion in B. subtilis was successfully transferred to C. glutamicum as alternative secretion host. Cutinase secretion in C. glutamicum was quantified using an automated micro scale cultivation system for online growth monitoring, cell separation and cutinase activity determination. Secretion phenotyping results were correlated to those from a previous study, in which the same SP library was used to optimize secretion of the same cutinase but using B. subtilis as host. Strikingly, behavior of specific SP-cutinase combinations was changed dramatically between B. subtilis and C. glutamicum. Some SPs showed comparable cutinase secretion performances in both hosts, whereas other SPs caused diametrical extracellular cutinase activities. CONCLUSION: The optimal production strain for a specific target protein of choice still cannot be designed in silico. Not only the best SP for a target protein has to be evaluated each time from scratch, the expression host also affects which SP is best. Thus, (heterologous) SP library screening using high-throughput methods is considered to be crucial to construct an optimal production strain for a target protein.

Functional implementation of the posttranslational SecB-SecA protein-targeting pathway in Bacillus subtilis.

Bacillus subtilis and its close relatives are widely used in industry for the Sec-dependent secretory production of proteins. Like other Gram-positive bacteria, B. subtilis does not possess SecB, a dedicated targeting chaperone that posttranslationally delivers exported proteins to the SecA component of the translocase. In the present study, we have implemented a functional SecB-dependent protein-targeting pathway into B. subtilis by coexpressing SecB from Escherichia coli together with a SecA hybrid protein in which the carboxyl-terminal 32 amino acids of the B. subtilis SecA were replaced by the corresponding part of SecA from E. coli. In vitro pulldown experiments showed that, in contrast to B. subtilis SecA, the hybrid SecA protein gained the ability to efficiently bind to E. coli SecB, suggesting that the structural details of the extreme C-terminal region of SecA constitute a crucial SecB binding specificity determinant. Using a poorly exported mutant maltose binding protein (MalE11) and alkaline phosphatase (PhoA) as model proteins, we could demonstrate that the secretion of both proteins by B. subtilis was significantly enhanced in the presence of the artificial protein targeting pathway. Mutations in SecB that do not influence its chaperone activity but prevent its interaction with SecA abolished the secretion stimulation of both proteins, demonstrating that the implemented pathway in fact critically depends on the SecB targeting function. From a biotechnological view, our results open up a new strategy for the improvement of Gram-positive bacterial host systems for the secretory production of heterologous proteins.

A tetracycline inducible expression vector for Corynebacterium glutamicum allowing tightly regulable gene expression.

Here we report on the construction of a tetracycline inducible expression vector that allows a tightly regulable gene expression in Corynebacterium glutamicum which is used in industry for production of small molecules such as amino acids. Using the green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a reporter protein we show that this vector, named pCLTON1, is characterized by tight repression under non-induced conditions as compared to a conventional IPTG inducible expression vector, and that it allows gradual GFP synthesis upon gradual increase of anhydrotetracycline addition.

An automated workflow for enhancing microbial bioprocess optimization on a novel microbioreactor platform.

BACKGROUND: High-throughput methods are widely-used for strain screening effectively resulting in binary information regarding high or low productivity. Nevertheless achieving quantitative and scalable parameters for fast bioprocess development is much more challenging, especially for heterologous protein production. Here, the nature of the foreign protein makes it impossible to predict the, e.g. best expression construct, secretion signal peptide, inductor concentration, induction time, temperature and substrate feed rate in fed-batch operation to name only a few. Therefore, a high number of systematic experiments are necessary to elucidate the best conditions for heterologous expression of each new protein of interest. RESULTS: To increase the throughput in bioprocess development, we used a microtiter plate based cultivation system (Biolector) which was fully integrated into a liquid-handling platform enclosed in laminar airflow housing. This automated cultivation platform was used for optimization of the secretory production of a cutinase from Fusarium solani pisi with Corynebacterium glutamicum. The online monitoring of biomass, dissolved oxygen and pH in each of the microtiter plate wells enables to trigger sampling or dosing events with the pipetting robot used for a reliable selection of best performing cutinase producers. In addition to this, further automated methods like media optimization and induction profiling were developed and validated. All biological and bioprocess parameters were exclusively optimized at microtiter plate scale and showed perfect scalable results to 1 L and 20 L stirred tank bioreactor scale. CONCLUSIONS: The optimization of heterologous protein expression in microbial systems currently requires extensive testing of biological and bioprocess engineering parameters. This can be efficiently boosted by using a microtiter plate cultivation setup embedded into a liquid-handling system, providing more throughput by parallelization and automation. Due to improved statistics by replicate cultivations, automated downstream analysis, and scalable process information, this setup has superior performance compared to standard microtiter plate cultivation.

Biosensor-Based Optimization of Cutinase Secretion by Corynebacterium glutamicum.

The industrial microbe Corynebacterium glutamicum is gaining substantial importance as a platform host for recombinant protein secretion. We recently developed a fluorescence-based (eYFP) C. glutamicum reporter strain for the quantification of Sec-dependent protein secretion by monitoring the secretion-related stress response and now demonstrate its applicability in optimizing the secretion of the heterologous enzyme cutinase from Fusarium solani pisi. To drive secretion, either the poor-performing PelSP or the potent NprESP Sec signal peptide from Bacillus subtilis was used. To enable easy detection and quantification of the secreted cutinase we implemented the split green fluorescent protein (GFP) assay, which relies on the GFP11-tag fused to the C-terminus of the cutinase, which can complement a truncated GFP thereby reconstituting its fluorescence. The reporter strain was transformed with different mutant libraries created by error-prone PCR, which covered the region of the signal peptide and the N-terminus of the cutinase. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) was performed to isolate cells that show increased fluorescence in response to increased protein secretion stress. Five PelSP variants were identified that showed a 4- to 6-fold increase in the amount and activity of the secreted cutinase (up to 4,100 U/L), whereas two improved NprESP variants were identified that showed a ∼35% increase in secretion, achieving ∼5,500 U/L. Most of the isolated variants carried mutations in the h-region of the signal peptide that increased its overall hydrophobicity. Using site-directed mutagenesis it was shown that the combined mutations F11I and P16S within the hydrophobic core of the PelSP are sufficient to boost cutinase secretion in batch cultivations to the same level as achieved by the NprESP. Screening of a PelSP mutant library in addition resulted in the identification of a cutinase variant with an increased specific activity, which was attributed to the mutation A85V located within the substrate-binding region. Taken together the biosensor-based optimization approach resulted in a substantial improvement of cutinase secretion by C. glutamicum, and therefore represents a valuable tool that can be applied to any secretory protein of interest.

Cotranslocation of methyl parathion hydrolase to the periplasm and of organophosphorus hydrolase to the cell surface of Escherichia coli by the Tat pathway and ice nucleation protein display system.

A genetically engineered Escherichia coli strain coexpressing organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) and methyl parathion hydrolase (MPH) was constructed for the first time by cotransforming two compatible plasmids. Since these two enzymes have different substrate specificities, the coexpression strain showed a broader substrate range than strains expressing either one of the hydrolases. To reduce the mass transport limitation of organophosphates (OPs) across the cell membrane, MPH and OPH were simultaneously translocated to the periplasm and cell surface of E. coli, respectively, by employing the twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway and ice nucleation protein (INP) display system. The resulting recombinant strain showed sixfold-higher whole-cell activity than the control strain expressing cytosolic OP hydrolases. The correct localization of MPH and OPH was demonstrated by cell fractionation, immunoblotting, and enzyme activity assays. No growth inhibition was observed for the recombinant E. coli strain, and suspended cultures retained almost 100% of the activity over a period of 2 weeks. Owing to its high level of activity and superior stability, the recombinant E. coli strain could be employed as a whole-cell biocatalyst for detoxification of OPs. This strategy of utilizing dual translocation pathways should open up new avenues for cotranslocating multiple functional moieties to different extracytosolic compartments of a bacterial cell.

Contributions of the pre- and pro-regions of a Staphylococcus hyicus lipase to secretion of a heterologous protein by Bacillus subtilis.

Bacillus subtilis is a well-established cell factory for efficient secretion of many biotechnologically relevant enzymes that are naturally produced by it or related organisms. However, the use of B. subtilis as a host for production of heterologous secretory proteins can be complicated by problems related to inefficient translocation of the foreign proteins across the plasma membrane or to inefficient release of the exported proteins from the cell surface into the surrounding medium. Therefore, there is a clear need for tools that allow more efficient membrane targeting, translocation, and release during the production of these proteins. In the present study, we investigated the contributions of the pre (pre(lip)) and pro (pro(lip)) sequences of a Staphylococcus hyicus lipase to secretion of a heterologous protein, the alkaline phosphatase PhoA of Escherichia coli, by B. subtilis. The results indicate that the presence of the pro(lip)-peptide, in combination with the lipase signal peptide (pre(lip)), contributes significantly to the efficient secretion of PhoA by B. subtilis and that pre(lip) directs PhoA secretion more efficiently than the authentic signal peptide of PhoA. Genome-wide transcriptional analyses of the host cell responses indicate that, under the conditions tested, no known secretion or membrane-cell wall stress responses were provoked by the production of PhoA with any of the pre- and pro-region sequences used. Our data underscore the view that the pre-pro signals of the S. hyicus lipase are very useful tools for secretion of heterologous proteins in B. subtilis.

Twin-arginine translocation of methyl parathion hydrolase in Bacillus subtilis.

Secretion of recombinant enzymes to extracellular milieu is important for enhanced degradation of toxic pollutants since the substrates are often inadequately taken up by cells. The twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway is a secretion mechanism for the transport of folded proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane of bacteria. Notably, two substrate-specific Tat systems have previously been discovered in Bacillus subtilis. The uptake of organophosphates (OPs) is the rate-limiting factor in whole-cell degradation of OPs. In this study, to secret an OP-hydrolyzing enzyme, methyl parathion hydrolase (MPH), into the growth medium, the twin-arginine (RR-) signal peptide of trimethylamine N-oxide reductase (TorA) from Escherichia coli was used to target MPH to the Tat pathway of B. subtilis. Fractionation studies and MPH assays demonstrated that MPH was secreted into the culture supernatant where it was fully active. Export was fully blocked in a tat mutant, indicating that the observed export in wild-type cells was mediated exclusively by the Tat pathway. The amount of MPH present in the culture medium was estimated to be 6.1 mg/L. N-terminal sequencing of the purified MPH demonstrated that the TorA signal peptide had been processed correctly. The secretion of MPH neither inhibited cell growth nor affected cell viability. The recombinant strain showed the accelerated degradation for OPs and the culture supernatant effectively degraded OPs on vegetables. The recombinant strain may be ideal for large-scale production of MPH at low costs because of simplification of the protein purification step. The Tat pathway of B. subtilis was successfully utilized for extracellular secretion of MPH. This is the first demonstration of Tat-dependent export of an active heterologous protein in B. subtilis using an E. coli Tat signal peptide. This study highlights the potential of the B. subtilis Tat pathway for heterologous protein secretion.

Improvement of Sec-dependent secretion of a heterologous model protein in Bacillus subtilis by saturation mutagenesis of the N-domain of the AmyE signal peptide.

Due to the lack of an outer membrane, Gram-positive bacteria (e.g., Bacillus species) are considered as promising host organisms for the secretory production of biotechnologically relevant heterologous proteins. However, the yields of the desired target proteins were often reported to be disappointingly low. Here, we used saturation mutagenesis of the positively charged N-domain (positions 2-7) of the signal peptide of the Bacillus subtilis alpha-amylase (AmyE) as a novel approach for the improvement of the secretion of a heterologous model protein, cutinase from Fusarium solani pisi, by the general secretory pathway of B. subtilis. Automated high-throughput screening of the resulting signal peptide libraries allowed for the identification of four single point mutations that resulted in significantly increased cutinase amounts, three of which surprisingly reduced the net charge of the N-domain from +3 to +2. Characterization of the effects of the identified mutations on protein synthesis and export kinetics by pulse-chase analyses indicates that an optimal balance between biosynthesis and the flow of the target protein through all stages of the B. subtilis secretion pathway is of crucial importance with respect to yield and quality of secreted heterologous proteins.

A periplasmic, pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent amino acid racemase in Pseudomonas taetrolens.

The pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent amino acid racemases occur in almost every bacterium but may differ considerably with respect to substrate specificity. We here isolated the cloned broad substrate specificity racemase ArgR of Pseudomonas taetrolens from Escherichia coli by classical procedures. The racemase was biochemically characterized and amongst other aspects it was confirmed that it is mostly active with lysine, arginine and ornithine, but merely weakly active with alanine, whereas the alanine racemase of the same organism studied in comparison acts on alanine only. Unexpectedly, sequencing the amino-terminal end of ArgR revealed processing of the protein, with a signal peptide cleaved off. Subsequent localization studies demonstrated that in both P. taetrolens and E. coli ArgR activity was almost exclusively present in the periplasm, a feature so far unknown for any amino acid racemase. An ArgR-derivative carrying a carboxy-terminal His-tag was made and this was demonstrated to localize even in an E. coli mutant devoid of the twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway in the periplasm. These data indicate that ArgR is synthesized as a prepeptide and translocated in a Tat-independent manner. We therefore propose that ArgR translocation depends on the Sec system and a post-translocational insertion of PLP occurs. As further experiments showed, ArgR is necessary for the catabolism of D: -arginine and D: -lysine by P. taetrolens.

Modulation of thiol-disulfide oxidoreductases for increased production of disulfide-bond-containing proteins in Bacillus subtilis.

Disulfide bonds are important for the correct folding, structural integrity, and activity of many biotechnologically relevant proteins. For synthesis and subsequent secretion of these proteins in bacteria, such as the well-known "cell factory" Bacillus subtilis, it is often the correct formation of disulfide bonds that is the greatest bottleneck. Degradation of inefficiently or incorrectly oxidized proteins and the requirement for costly and time-consuming reduction and oxidation steps in the downstream processing of the proteins still are major limitations for full exploitation of B. subtilis for biopharmaceutical production. Therefore, the present study was aimed at developing a novel in vivo strategy for improved production of secreted disulfide-bond-containing proteins. Three approaches were tested: depletion of the major cytoplasmic reductase TrxA; introduction of the heterologous oxidase DsbA from Staphylococcus carnosus; and addition of redox-active compounds to the growth medium. As shown using the disulfide-bond-containing molecule Escherichia coli PhoA as a model protein, combined use of these three approaches resulted in secretion of amounts of active PhoA that were approximately 3.5-fold larger than the amounts secreted by the parental strain B. subtilis 168. Our findings indicate that Bacillus strains with improved oxidizing properties can be engineered for biotechnological production of heterologous high-value proteins containing disulfide bonds.