辅因子在微生物细胞工厂中的代谢调控与应用*

生物体中大部分酶催化反应都需要辅因子参与,辅因子平衡对维持正常的细胞代谢至关重要,而辅因子失衡则会导致细胞生长和生产的紊乱。在微生物细胞工厂的构建中,通过调节辅因子代谢平衡来提高产物合成途径的效率,从而调控细胞生长与产物生产,使代谢流能够最大限度地流向目标产物,已经成为代谢调控的重要手段。目前常见的用于代谢调控的辅因子有NAD(P)H/NAD(P)⁺、辅酶、ATP/ADP等。围绕这几种辅因子的代谢途径及功能分类进行了综述,并总结了微生物中不同产物利用辅因子平衡策略进行合成调控的研究,以期为各类化合物的高效生物合成提供参考。     

正交氧化还原体系及其应用

氧化还原反应是最常见的代谢反应类型之一,其中绝大部分通过辅因子依赖型氧化还原酶催化实现.由于辅因子广泛参与细胞内氧化还原反应及其他生物学过程,因代谢途径改造而扰动辅因子水平的生物学效应尚难以预测.设计构建基于人工辅因子的正交体系,是减少人工代谢途径与内源代谢网络相互干扰、降低系统复杂度、提高调控代谢网络有效性的新策略.本文探讨了正交氧化还原体系的构建方法,并结合实例说明其对提高能量传递特异性和人工代谢途径效率的重要意义.     

丁醇在大肠杆菌中的生物合成研究进展*

生物丁醇作为一种重要的化学品和石油基燃料的替代品引起了人们的广泛关注。大肠杆菌(Escherichia coli)是生物合成化学品的优良底盘菌株,已在其体内构建了丁醇的生物合成途径。但大肠杆菌合成丁醇存在:(1)代谢通量非最优;(2)辅因子和氧化还原不平衡;(3)丁醇产量和产率低等问题,为此,从高效酶选择、碳代谢流调控、辅因子调控、丁醇生产和工艺等方面已经对丁醇合成途径和丁醇发酵进行了优化。从该角度出发阐述近几年来大肠杆菌生物合成丁醇的研究进展,并展望了利用工程大肠杆菌生产丁醇的研究方向,旨在为应用其进行高效的丁醇生产提供参考。     

丁醇在大肠杆菌中的生物合成研究进展*

生物丁醇作为一种重要的化学品和石油基燃料的替代品引起了人们的广泛关注。大肠杆菌(Escherichia coli)是生物合成化学品的优良底盘菌株,已在其体内构建了丁醇的生物合成途径。但大肠杆菌合成丁醇存在:(1)代谢通量非最优;(2)辅因子和氧化还原不平衡;(3)丁醇产量和产率低等问题,为此,从高效酶选择、碳代谢流调控、辅因子调控、丁醇生产和工艺等方面已经对丁醇合成途径和丁醇发酵进行了优化。从该角度出发阐述近几年来大肠杆菌生物合成丁醇的研究进展,并展望了利用工程大肠杆菌生产丁醇的研究方向,旨在为应用其进行高效的丁醇生产提供参考。     

ATP调控策略及其在微生物代谢产物合成中的应用

辅因子工程是代谢工程的一个新兴分支领域,主要通过直接调控细胞内关键酶的辅因子,如ATP/ADP、NADH/NAD+、NADPH/NADP+等的浓度和形式来实现代谢流的最大化,快速地将物质流导向目标代谢物。ATP作为一种重要辅因子参与微生物细胞内大量的酶催化反应,将物质代谢途径串联或并联成复杂的网络体系,最终使得物质代谢流的分配受到牵制。因此ATP调控策略有望成为微生物菌株改造的有利工具,用于提高目标代谢物的浓度和生产能力,强化微生物对于环境的耐受以及促进底物利用等。文中将重点论述目前常用的有效ATP调控策略以及ATP调控对于细胞代谢的影响,以期为微生物细胞工厂的高效构建提供参考。     

微生物辅因子工程研究进展

微生物细胞中的大部分酶促反应都需要各种辅因子的参与,辅因子平衡对维持细胞内的生化反应稳态非常重要,辅因子供应不足会导致细胞生长和化合物生产的紊乱。近年来,辅因子在生化反应过程中的关键作用备受关注,但由于其价格较昂贵、稳定性差,因此限制了辅因子工程的发展。合成生物学和代谢工程的发展为辅因子的可持续供应提供了可行的解决方案,多种加强辅因子供应的策略有效地推动了目标化合物的生物合成。其中,烟酰胺类辅因子NAD(P)⁺、NAD(P)H是微生物代谢过程中最常见的氧化还原辅因子,它们在所有生物体内作为重要的电子受体或供体推动合成与分解代谢反应,对维持胞内氧化还原动态平衡起着决定性作用。从NAD(P)H的主要来源和NAD(P)⁺/NAD(P)H的平衡对天然产物生物合成中的影响出发,重点从三个不同维度讨论辅因子工程策略,综述代谢途径调节、外源氧化还原酶的引入、蛋白质工程等多种辅因子再生策略的最新研究进展及应用,展望辅因子代谢工程在生物合成中的未来发展方向。     

微生物发酵生产α-酮戊二酸研究进展

α-酮戊二酸是微生物三羧酸循环中重要的代谢中间产物,是连接细胞内碳-氮代谢的关键节点,具有广泛的应用价值.文中从4个方面归纳了国内外关于α-酮戊二酸研究进展:能够过量积累α-酮戊二酸的原核和真核微生物的发现和筛选;硫胺素缺陷型和氮源饥饿引起的α-酮戊二酸过量积累的生理学特性;控制培养环境中的pH、溶氧和辅因子对生产α-酮戊二酸发酵过程控制与优化;调控辅因子再生和代谢途径改造高产菌株.最后,讨论了微生物法生产α-酮戊二酸存在的不足和今后研究的方向.     

蝶呤型钼辅因子生物合成、运输及组装——潜在的药物靶标

钼辅因子作为氧化还原反应中的重要分子,参与硫、氮、碳的氧化还原代谢.钼辅因子主要分为两类:以铁硫簇为基础的铁钼辅因子和以亚钼蝶呤为基础的钼辅因子.钼-二-亚钼蝶呤-鸟苷二核苷钼辅因子(Mo-bis-MGD)是蝶呤型钼辅因子的重要成员之一,是硝酸盐还原酶的重要辅因子.膜结合硝酸盐还原酶介导的硝酸盐还原为细菌提供了氮源和能...     

工业微生物中NADH的代谢调控

NADH是微生物代谢网络中的一种关键辅因子。调节微生物胞内NADH的形式与浓度是定向改变和优化微生物细胞代谢功能, 实现代谢流最大化、快速化地导向目标代谢产物的重要手段之一。以下在详尽总结了NADH生理功能的基础上, 从生化工程(添加外源电子受体、不同氧化还原态底物及NAD合成前体物, 调节培养环境和氧化还原电势)和代谢工程(过量表达NADH代谢相关酶、缺失NADH竞争途径及引入NADH外源代谢途径)两方面分析、归纳了NADH代谢调控策略, 进而凝练出调控NADH/NAD+比率调节微生物细胞代谢功能研究方面亟待解决的3个科学问题及可能的解决途径。     

微生物代谢路径的优化与调控

代谢路径平衡对化学品、药品和生物燃料的生产具有重要的作用。为了满足工业化生产的需求,维持代谢路径最优平衡是实现代谢流高效化导向目标代谢产物的必要手段。从DNA、RNA、蛋白质和代谢物四个水平,分析归纳了微生物代谢路径的优化与调控策略,并展望了代谢路径平衡进一步精深调控的发展方向。     

Cofactor engineering for more efficient production of chemicals and biofuels

Cofactors are involved in numerous intracellular reactions and critically influence redox balance and cellular metabolism. Cofactor engineering can support and promote the biocatalysis process, even help driving thermodynamically unfavorable reactions forwards. To achieve efficient production of chemicals and biofuels, cofactor engineering strategies such as altering cofactor supply or modifying reactants' cofactor preference have been developed to maintain redox balance. This review focuses primarily on the effects of cofactor engineering on carbon and energy metabolism. Coupling carbon metabolism with cofactor engineering can promote large-scale production, and even offer possibilities for producing new products or converting new materials.     

辅酶工程在酿酒酵母木糖代谢工程中的研究进展

辅酶工程（cofactor engineering）是代谢工程的一个重要分支,它通过改变辅酶的再生途径,达到改变细胞内代谢产物构成的目的。介绍了酿酒酵母(Saccharomyces cerevisiae)木糖代谢工程中,利用辅酶工程解决氧化还原平衡问题的研究进展,包括引入转氢酶系统,增加代谢中可利用的NADPH,实现NADH的厌氧氧化等策略。同时介绍了改变XR、XDH辅酶偏好的研究进展。     

Genome-scale consequences of cofactor balancing in engineered pentose utilization pathways in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Biofuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass offer promising alternative renewable energy sources for transportation fuels. Significant effort has been made to engineer Saccharomyces cerevisiae to efficiently ferment pentose sugars such as D-xylose and L-arabinose into biofuels such as ethanol through heterologous expression of the fungal D-xylose and L-arabinose pathways. However, one of the major bottlenecks in these fungal pathways is that the cofactors are not balanced, which contributes to inefficient utilization of pentose sugars. We utilized a genome-scale model of S. cerevisiae to predict the maximal achievable growth rate for cofactor balanced and imbalanced D-xylose and L-arabinose utilization pathways. Dynamic flux balance analysis (DFBA) was used to simulate batch fermentation of glucose, D-xylose, and L-arabinose. The dynamic models and experimental results are in good agreement for the wild type and for the engineered D-xylose utilization pathway. Cofactor balancing the engineered D-xylose and L-arabinose utilization pathways simulated an increase in ethanol batch production of 24.7% while simultaneously reducing the predicted substrate utilization time by 70%. Furthermore, the effects of cofactor balancing the engineered pentose utilization pathways were evaluated throughout the genome-scale metabolic network. This work not only provides new insights to the global network effects of cofactor balancing but also provides useful guidelines for engineering a recombinant yeast strain with cofactor balanced engineered pathways that efficiently co-utilizes pentose and hexose sugars for biofuels production. Experimental switching of cofactor usage in enzymes has been demonstrated, but is a time-consuming effort. Therefore, systems biology models that can predict the likely outcome of such strain engineering efforts are highly useful for motivating which efforts are likely to be worth the significant time investment.     

High-yield production of L-valine in engineered Escherichia coli by a novel two-stage fermentation

L-valine is an essential amino acid and an important amino acid in the food and feed industry. The relatively low titer and low fermentation yield currently limit the large-scale application of L-valine. Here, we constructed a chromosomally engineered Escherichia coli to efficiently produce L-valine. First, the synthetic pathway of L-valine was enhanced by heterologous introduction of a feedback-resistant acetolactate acid synthase from Bacillus subtilis and overexpression of other two enzymes in the L-valine synthetic pathway. For efficient efflux of L-valine, an exporter from Corynebacterium glutamicum was subsequently introduced. Next, the precursor pyruvate pool was increased by knockout of GTP pyrophosphokinase and introduction of a ppGpp 3′-pyrophosphohydrolase mutant to facilitate the glucose uptake process. Finally, in order to improve the redox cofactor balance, acetohydroxy acid isomeroreductase was replaced by a NADH-preferring mutant, and branched-chain amino acid aminotransferase was replaced by leucine dehydrogenase from Bacillus subtilis. Redox cofactor balance enabled the strain to synthesize L-valine under oxygen-limiting condition, significantly increasing the yield in the presence of glucose. Two-stage fed-batch fermentation of the final strain in a 5 L bioreactor produced 84 g/L L-valine with a yield and productivity of 0.41 g/g glucose and 2.33 g/L/h, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest L-valine titer and yield ever reported in E. coli. The systems metabolic engineering strategy described here will be useful for future engineering of E. coli strains for the industrial production of L-valine and related products.     

Engineering of carboligase activity reaction in Candida glabrata for acetoin production

Utilization of Candida glabrata overproducing pyruvate is a promising strategy for high-level acetoin production. Based on the known regulatory and metabolic information, acetaldehyde and thiamine were fed to identify the key nodes of carboligase activity reaction (CAR) pathway and provide a direction for engineering C. glabrata. Accordingly, alcohol dehydrogenase, acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, pyruvate decarboxylase, and butanediol dehydrogenase were selected to be manipulated for strengthening the CAR pathway. Following the rational metabolic engineering, the engineered strain exhibited increased acetoin biosynthesis (2.24 g/L). In addition, through in silico simulation and redox balance analysis, NADH was identified as the key factor restricting higher acetoin production. Correspondingly, after introduction of NADH oxidase, the final acetoin production was further increased to 7.33 g/L. By combining the rational metabolic engineering and cofactor engineering, the acetoin-producing C. glabrata was improved stepwise, opening a novel pathway for rational development of microorganisms for bioproduction.     

Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli: increase of NADH availability by overexpressing an NAD(+)-dependent formate dehydrogenase

Metabolic engineering studies have generally focused on manipulating enzyme levels through either the amplification, addition, or deletion of a particular pathway. However, with cofactor-dependent production systems, once the enzyme levels are no longer limiting, cofactor availability and the ratio of the reduced to oxidized form of the cofactor can become limiting. Under these situations, cofactor manipulation may become crucial in order to further increase system productivity. Although it is generally known that cofactors play a major role in the production of different fermentation products, their role has not been thoroughly and systematically studied. However, cofactor manipulations can potentially become a powerful tool for metabolic engineering. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) functions as a cofactor in over 300 oxidation-reduction reactions and regulates various enzymes and genetic processes. The NADH/NAD+ cofactor pair plays a major role in microbial catabolism, in which a carbon source, such as glucose, is oxidized using NAD+ producing reducing equivalents in the form of NADH. It is crucially important for continued cell growth that NADH be oxidized to NAD+ and a redox balance be achieved. Under aerobic growth, oxygen is used as the final electron acceptor. While under anaerobic growth, and in the absence of an alternate oxidizing agent, the regeneration of NAD+ is achieved through fermentation by using NADH to reduce metabolic intermediates. Therefore, an increase in the availability of NADH is expected to have an effect on the metabolic distribution. This paper investigates a genetic means of manipulating the availability of intracellular NADH in vivo by regenerating NADH through the heterologous expression of an NAD(+)-dependent formate dehydrogenase. More specifically, it explores the effect on the metabolic patterns in Escherichia coli under anaerobic and aerobic conditions of substituting the native cofactor-independent formate dehydrogenase (FDH) by and NAD(+)-dependent FDH from Candida boidinii. The over-expression of the NAD(+)-dependent FDH doubled the maximum yield of NADH from 2 to 4 mol NADH/mol glucose consumed, increased the final cell density, and provoked a significant change in the final metabolite concentration pattern both anaerobically and aerobically. Under anaerobic conditions, the production of more reduced metabolites was favored, as evidenced by a dramatic increase in the ethanol-to-acetate ratio. Even more interesting is the observation that during aerobic growth, the increased availability of NADH induced a shift to fermentation even in the presence of oxygen by stimulating pathways that are normally inactive under these conditions.     

Spatial modulation and cofactor engineering of key pathway enzymes for fumarate production in Candida glabrata

Fumarate is a naturally occurring organic acid that is an intermediate of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and has numerous applications in food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. However, microbial fumarate production from renewable feedstock is limited by the intrinsic inefficiency of its synthetic pathway caused by week metabolites transportation and cofactor imbalance. In this study, spatial modulation and cofactor engineering of key pathway enzymes in the reductive TCA pathway were performed for the development of a Candida glabrata strain capable of efficiently producing fumarate. Specifically, DNA-guided scaffold system was first constructed and optimized to modulate pyruvate carboxylase, malate dehydrogenase, and fumarase, increasing the fumarate titer from 0.18 to 11.3 g/L. Then, combinatorially tuning cofactor balance by controlling the expression strengths of adenosine diphosphate-dependent phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and NAD⁺-dependent formate dehydrogenase led to a large increase in fumarate production up to 18.5 g/L. Finally, the engineered strain T.G-4G-S_(1:1:2)-P_(M)-F_(H) was able to produce 21.6 g/L fumarate in a 5-L batch bioreactor. This strategy described here, paves the way to develop efficient cell factories for the production of the other industrially useful chemicals.     

Redox cofactor engineering in industrial microorganisms: strategies,recent applications and future directions

NAD and NADP, a pivotal class of cofactors, which function as essential electron donors or acceptors in all biological organisms, drive considerable catabolic and anabolic reactions. Furthermore, they play critical roles in maintaining intracellular redox homeostasis. However, many metabolic engineering efforts in industrial microorganisms towards modification or introduction of metabolic pathways, especially those involving consumption, generation or transformation of NAD/NADP, often induce fluctuations in redox state, which dramatically impede cellular metabolism, resulting in decreased growth performance and biosynthetic capacity. Here, we comprehensively review the cofactor engineering strategies for solving the problematic redox imbalance in metabolism modification, as well as their features, suitabilities and recent applications. Some representative examples of in vitro biocatalysis are also described. In addition, we briefly discuss how tools and methods from the field of synthetic biology can be applied for cofactor engineering. Finally, future directions and challenges for development of cofactor redox engineering are presented.