Isobutyraldehyde production from <it>Escherichia coli</it> by removing aldehyde reductase activity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increasing global demand and reliance on petroleum-derived chemicals will necessitate alternative sources for chemical feedstocks. Currently, 99% of chemical feedstocks are derived from petroleum and natural gas. Renewable methods fo...

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Main Authors: Rodriguez Gabriel M, Atsumi Shota
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2012-06-01
Series:Microbial Cell Factories
Online Access:http://www.microbialcellfactories.com/content/11/1/90
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author Rodriguez Gabriel M
Atsumi Shota
author_facet Rodriguez Gabriel M
Atsumi Shota
author_sort Rodriguez Gabriel M
collection DOAJ
description <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increasing global demand and reliance on petroleum-derived chemicals will necessitate alternative sources for chemical feedstocks. Currently, 99% of chemical feedstocks are derived from petroleum and natural gas. Renewable methods for producing important chemical feedstocks largely remain unaddressed. Synthetic biology enables the renewable production of various chemicals from microorganisms by constructing unique metabolic pathways. Here, we engineer <it>Escherichia coli</it> for the production of isobutyraldehyde, which can be readily converted to various hydrocarbons currently derived from petroleum such as isobutyric acid, acetal, oxime and imine using existing chemical catalysis. Isobutyraldehyde can be readily stripped from cultures during production, which reduces toxic effects of isobutyraldehyde.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We adopted the isobutanol pathway previously constructed in <it>E. coli</it>, neglecting the last step in the pathway where isobutyraldehyde is converted to isobutanol. However, this strain still overwhelmingly produced isobutanol (1.5 g/L/OD<sub>600</sub> (isobutanol) vs 0.14 g/L/OD<sub>600</sub> (isobutyraldehyde)). Next, we deleted <it>yqhD</it> which encodes a broad-substrate range aldehyde reductase known to be active toward isobutyraldehyde. This strain produced isobutanol and isobutyraldehyde at a near 1:1 ratio, indicating further native isobutyraldehyde reductase (IBR) activity in <it>E. coli</it>. To further eliminate isobutanol formation, we set out to identify and remove the remaining <it>IBR</it>s from the <it>E. coli</it> genome. We identified 7 annotated genes coding for IBRs that could be active toward isobutyraldehyde: <it>adhP</it>, <it>eutG</it>, <it>yiaY</it>, <it>yjgB</it>, <it>betA</it>, <it>fucO</it>, <it>eutE</it>. Individual deletions of the genes yielded only marginal improvements. Therefore, we sequentially deleted all seven of the genes and assessed production. The combined deletions greatly increased isobutyraldehyde production (1.5 g/L/OD<sub>600</sub>) and decreased isobutanol production (0.4 g/L/OD<sub>600</sub>). By assessing production by overexpression of each candidate <it>IBR</it>, we reveal that AdhP, EutG, YjgB, and FucO are active toward isobutyraldehyde. Finally, we assessed long-term isobutyraldehyde production of our best strain containing a total of 15 gene deletions using a gas stripping system with <it>in situ</it> product removal, resulting in a final titer of 35 g/L after 5 days.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this work, we optimized <it>E. coli</it> for the production of the important chemical feedstock isobutyraldehyde by the removal of IBRs. Long-term production yielded industrially relevant titers of isobutyraldehyde with <it>in situ</it> product removal. The mutational load imparted on <it>E. coli</it> in this work demonstrates the versatility of metabolic engineering for strain improvements.</p>
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spelling doaj.art-6d8511a68f1e4003805097a189630dfe2022-12-22T03:17:40ZengBMCMicrobial Cell Factories1475-28592012-06-011119010.1186/1475-2859-11-90Isobutyraldehyde production from <it>Escherichia coli</it> by removing aldehyde reductase activityRodriguez Gabriel MAtsumi Shota<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increasing global demand and reliance on petroleum-derived chemicals will necessitate alternative sources for chemical feedstocks. Currently, 99% of chemical feedstocks are derived from petroleum and natural gas. Renewable methods for producing important chemical feedstocks largely remain unaddressed. Synthetic biology enables the renewable production of various chemicals from microorganisms by constructing unique metabolic pathways. Here, we engineer <it>Escherichia coli</it> for the production of isobutyraldehyde, which can be readily converted to various hydrocarbons currently derived from petroleum such as isobutyric acid, acetal, oxime and imine using existing chemical catalysis. Isobutyraldehyde can be readily stripped from cultures during production, which reduces toxic effects of isobutyraldehyde.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We adopted the isobutanol pathway previously constructed in <it>E. coli</it>, neglecting the last step in the pathway where isobutyraldehyde is converted to isobutanol. However, this strain still overwhelmingly produced isobutanol (1.5 g/L/OD<sub>600</sub> (isobutanol) vs 0.14 g/L/OD<sub>600</sub> (isobutyraldehyde)). Next, we deleted <it>yqhD</it> which encodes a broad-substrate range aldehyde reductase known to be active toward isobutyraldehyde. This strain produced isobutanol and isobutyraldehyde at a near 1:1 ratio, indicating further native isobutyraldehyde reductase (IBR) activity in <it>E. coli</it>. To further eliminate isobutanol formation, we set out to identify and remove the remaining <it>IBR</it>s from the <it>E. coli</it> genome. We identified 7 annotated genes coding for IBRs that could be active toward isobutyraldehyde: <it>adhP</it>, <it>eutG</it>, <it>yiaY</it>, <it>yjgB</it>, <it>betA</it>, <it>fucO</it>, <it>eutE</it>. Individual deletions of the genes yielded only marginal improvements. Therefore, we sequentially deleted all seven of the genes and assessed production. The combined deletions greatly increased isobutyraldehyde production (1.5 g/L/OD<sub>600</sub>) and decreased isobutanol production (0.4 g/L/OD<sub>600</sub>). By assessing production by overexpression of each candidate <it>IBR</it>, we reveal that AdhP, EutG, YjgB, and FucO are active toward isobutyraldehyde. Finally, we assessed long-term isobutyraldehyde production of our best strain containing a total of 15 gene deletions using a gas stripping system with <it>in situ</it> product removal, resulting in a final titer of 35 g/L after 5 days.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this work, we optimized <it>E. coli</it> for the production of the important chemical feedstock isobutyraldehyde by the removal of IBRs. Long-term production yielded industrially relevant titers of isobutyraldehyde with <it>in situ</it> product removal. The mutational load imparted on <it>E. coli</it> in this work demonstrates the versatility of metabolic engineering for strain improvements.</p>http://www.microbialcellfactories.com/content/11/1/90
spellingShingle Rodriguez Gabriel M
Atsumi Shota
Isobutyraldehyde production from <it>Escherichia coli</it> by removing aldehyde reductase activity
Microbial Cell Factories
title Isobutyraldehyde production from <it>Escherichia coli</it> by removing aldehyde reductase activity
title_full Isobutyraldehyde production from <it>Escherichia coli</it> by removing aldehyde reductase activity
title_fullStr Isobutyraldehyde production from <it>Escherichia coli</it> by removing aldehyde reductase activity
title_full_unstemmed Isobutyraldehyde production from <it>Escherichia coli</it> by removing aldehyde reductase activity
title_short Isobutyraldehyde production from <it>Escherichia coli</it> by removing aldehyde reductase activity
title_sort isobutyraldehyde production from it escherichia coli it by removing aldehyde reductase activity
url http://www.microbialcellfactories.com/content/11/1/90
work_keys_str_mv AT rodriguezgabrielm isobutyraldehydeproductionfromitescherichiacoliitbyremovingaldehydereductaseactivity
AT atsumishota isobutyraldehydeproductionfromitescherichiacoliitbyremovingaldehydereductaseactivity