Evolutionary process of amino acid biosynthesis in Corynebacterium at the whole genome level

Corynebacterium glutamicum, which is the closest relative of Corynebacterium efficiens, is widely used for the large scale production of many kinds of amino acids, particularly glutamic acid and lysine, by fermentation. Corynebacterium diphtheriae, which is well known as a human pathogen, is also closely related to these two species of Corynebacteria, but it lacks such productivity of amino acids. It is an important and interesting question to ask how those closely related bacterial species have undergone such significant functional differentiation in amino acid biosynthesis. The main purpose of the present study is to clarify the evolutionary process of functional differentiation among the three species of Corynebacteria by conducting a comparative analysis of genome sequences. When Mycobacterium and Streptomyces were used as out groups, our comparative study suggested that the common ancestor of Corynebacteria already possessed almost all of the gene sets necessary for amino acid production. However, C. diphtheriae was found to have lost the genes responsible for amino acid production. Moreover, we found that the common ancestor of C. efficiens and C. glutamicum have acquired some of genes responsible for amino acid production by horizontal gene transfer. Thus, we conclude that the evolutionary events of gene loss and horizontal gene transfer must have been responsible for functional differentiation in amino acid biosynthesis of the three species of Corynebacteria.     

Amino acids production focusing on fermentation technologies – A review

Amino acids are attractive and promising biochemicals with market capacity requirements constantly increasing. Their applicability ranges from animal feed additives, flavour enhancers and ingredients in cosmetic to specialty nutrients in pharmaceutical and medical fields.This review gives an overview of the processes applied for amino acids production and points out the main advantages and disadvantages of each.Due to the advances made in the genetic engineering techniques, the biotechnological processes, and in particular the fermentation with the aid of strains such as Corynebacterium glutamicum or Escherichia coli, play a significant role in the industrial production of amino acids. Despite the numerous advantages of the fermentative amino acids production, the process still needs significant improvements leading to increased productivity and reduction of the production costs.Although the production processes of amino acids have been extensively investigated in previous studies, a comprehensive overview of the developments in bioprocess technology has not been reported yet. This review states the importance of the fermentation process for industrial amino acids production, underlining the strengths and the weaknesses of the process. Moreover, the potential of innovative approaches utilizing macro and microalgae or bacteria are presented.     

Proteomics of corynebacteria: From biotechnology workhorses to pathogens

Corynebacteria belong to the high G+C Gram-positive bacteria (Actinobacteria) and are closely related to Mycobacterium and Nocardia species. The best investigated member of this group of almost seventy species is Corynebacterium glutamicum, a soil bacterium isolated in 1957, which is used for the industrial production of more than two million tons of amino acids per year. This review focuses on the technical advances made in proteomics approaches during the last years and summarizes applications of these techniques with respect to C. glutamicum metabolic pathways and stress response. Additionally, selected proteome applications for other biotechnologically important or pathogenic corynebacteria are described.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus methanolicus</Emphasis>: a candidate for industrial production of amino acids from methanol at 50°C

Amino acids are among the major products in biotechnology in both volume and value, and the global market is growing. Microbial fermentation is the dominant method used for industrial production, and today the most important microorganisms used are Corynebacteria utilizing sugars. For low-prize bulk amino acids, the possibility of using alternative substrates such as methanol has gained considerable interest. In this mini review, we highlight the unique genetics and favorable physiological traits of thermotolerant methylotroph Bacillus methanolicus, which makes it an interesting candidate for overproduction of amino acids from methanol. B. methanolicus genes involved in methanol consumption are plasmid-encoded and this bacterium has a high methanol conversion rate. Wild-type strains can secrete 58 g/l of L: -glutamate in fed-batch cultures at 50 degrees C and classical mutants secreting 37 g/l of L: -lysine have been selected. The relative high growth temperature is an advantage with respect to both reactor cooling requirements and low contamination risks. Key genes in L: -lysine and L: -glutamate production have been cloned, high-cell density methanol fermentation technology established, and recently a gene delivery method was developed for this organism. We discuss how this new knowledge and technology may lead to the construction of improved L: -lysine and L: -glutamate producing strains by metabolic engineering.     

酸水解蚕蛹制备复合氨基酸的研究

采用硫酸水解法,以蚕蛹制取复合氨基酸产品,得到氨基酸态氮分别为９．０５％和１３．４５％的食用复合氨基粉和精制复合氨基酸粉。食用复合氨基酸粉含有１８种氨基酸,其中必需氨基酸含量为３９．２％。食用复合氨基酸粉的制备方法经工厂小批量生产证实,其工艺简单易行,适合于中小企业采用,该产品的质量优良,生产成本低廉,具有市场竞争力。     

谷氨酸棒杆菌中氨基酸分泌转运蛋白及其代谢改造研究进展

氨基酸是一类在食品、医药及化工等领域具有广泛应用的重要化合物。谷氨酸棒杆菌Corynebacterium glutamicum是生物合成氨基酸最重要的微生物菌株,其年产各类氨基酸超过百万吨。谷氨酸棒杆菌高产氨基酸除具有强大的合成代谢能力外,高效的分泌转运能力也是不可忽略的分子基础。文中综述了近年来谷氨酸棒杆菌中氨基酸分泌转运蛋白及其代谢改造的研究进展,并展望了未来发展方向,为进一步改造提升其发酵生产氨基酸的能力提供了可资借鉴的资料。     

A specific bacterial aminoacylase cleaves odorant precursors secreted in the human axilla

Human axillary odor is known to be formed upon the action of Corynebacteria sp. on odorless axilla secretions. The known axilla odor determinant 3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid was identified in hydrolyzed axilla secretions along with a chemically related compound, 3-hydroxy-3-methylhexanoic acid. The natural precursors of both these acids were purified from non-hydrolyzed axilla secretions. From liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis, it appeared that the acids are covalently linked to a glutamine residue in fresh axilla secretions, and the corresponding conjugates were synthesized for confirmation. Bacterial isolates obtained from the human axilla and belonging to the Corynebacteria were found to release the acids from these odorless precursors in vitro. A Zn(2+)-dependent aminoacylase mediating this cleavage was purified from Corynebacterium striatum Ax20, and the corresponding gene agaA was cloned and heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. The enzyme is highly specific for the glutamine residue but has a low specificity for the acyl part of the substrate. agaA is closely related to many genes coding for enzymes involved in the cleavage of N-terminal acyl and aryl substituents from amino acids. This is the first report of the structure elucidation of precursors for human body odorants and the isolation of the bacterial enzyme involved in their cleavage.     

Eco-Efficiency Analysis of biotechnological processes

For almost 50 years now, biotechnological production processes have been used for industrial production of amino acids. Market development has been particularly dynamic for the flavor-enhancer glutamate and the animal feed amino acids l-lysine, l-threonine, and l-tryptophan, which are produced by fermentation processes using high-performance strains of Corynebacterium glutamicum and Escherichia coli from sugar sources such as molasses, sucrose, or glucose. But the market for amino acids in synthesis is also becoming increasingly important, with annual growth rates of 5–7%. The use of enzymes and whole cell biocatalysts has proven particularly valuable in production of both proteinogenic and nonproteinogenic l-amino acids, d-amino acids, and enantiomerically pure amino acid derivatives, which are of great interest as building blocks for active ingredients that are applied as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and agricultural products. Nutrition and health will continue to be the driving forces for exploiting the potential of microorganisms, and possibly also of suitable plants, to arrive at even more efficient processes for amino acid production.     

Reduction of wobble-position GC bases in Corynebacteria genes and enhancement of PCR and heterologous expression

Corynebacteria codon usage exhibits an overall GC content of 67%, and a wobble-position GC content of 88%. Escherichia coli, on the other hand has an overall GC content of 51%, and a wobble-position GC content of 55%. The high GC content of Corynebacteria genes results in an unfavorable codon preference for heterologous expression, and can present difficulties for polymerase-based manipulations due to secondary-structure effects. Since these characteristics are due primarily to base composition at the wobble-position, synthetic genes can, in principle, be designed to eliminate these problems and retain the wild-type amino acid sequence. Such genes would obviate the need for special additives or bases during in vitro polymerase-based manipulation and mutant host strains containing uncommon tRNA's for heterologous expression. We have evaluated synthetic genes with reduced wobble-position G/C content using two variants of the enzyme 2,5-diketo-D-gluconic acid reductase (2,5-DKGR A and B) from Corynebacterium. The wild-type genes are refractory to polymerase-based manipulations and exhibit poor heterologous expression in enteric bacteria. The results indicate that a subset of codons for five amino acids (alanine, arginine, glutamate, glycine and valine) contribute the greatest contribution to reduction in G/C content at the wobble-position. Furthermore, changes in codons for two amino acids (leucine and proline) enhance bias for expression in enteric bacteria without affecting the overall G/C content. The synthetic genes are readily amplified using polymerase-based methodologies, and exhibit high levels of heterologous expression in E. coli.     

Renaissance of protein crystallization and precipitation in biopharmaceuticals purification

The current chromatographic approaches used in protein purification are not keeping pace with the increasing biopharmaceutical market demand. With the upstream improvements, the bottleneck shifted towards the downstream process. New approaches rely in Anything But Chromatography methodologies and revisiting former techniques with a bioprocess perspective. Protein crystallization and precipitation methods are already implemented in the downstream process of diverse therapeutic biological macromolecules, overcoming the current chromatographic bottlenecks. Promising work is being developed in order to implement crystallization and precipitation in the purification pipeline of high value therapeutic molecules. This review focuses in the role of these two methodologies in current industrial purification processes, and highlights their potential implementation in the purification pipeline of high value therapeutic molecules, overcoming chromatographic holdups.     

Metabolic pathways and biotechnological production of l-cysteine

l-Cysteine is an important amino acid both biologically and commercially. Although most amino acids are commercially produced by fermentation, cysteine is mainly produced by protein hydrolysis. However, synthetic or biotechnological products have been preferred in the market. Biotechnological processes for cysteine production, both enzymatic and fermentative processes, are discussed. Enzymatic process, the asymmetric hydrolysis of dl-2-amino-Δ²-thiazoline-4-carboxylic acid to l-cysteine, has been developed and industrialized. The l-cysteine biosynthetic pathways of Escherichia coli and Corynebacterium glutamicum, which are used in many amino acid production processes, are also described. These two bacteria have basically same l-cysteine biosynthetic pathways. l-Cysteine-degrading enzymes and l-cysteine-exporting proteins both in E. coli and C. glutamicum are also described. In conclusion, for the effective fermentative production of l-cysteine directly from glucose, the combination of enhancing biosynthetic activity, weakening the degradation pathway, and exploiting the export system seems to be effective.     

氨基酸生产和海洋生物的氨基酸资源开发

氨基酸在医药、食品、饲料等领域有着极为重要和广泛的用途,世界上氨基酸总需求量以５～１０％递增,市场竞争十分激烈。生物资源提取、化学合成、生物合成和综合法是生产氨基酸的４种技术,目前的发展趋势为生物合成和综合法,特别是将现代生物工程技术应用于氨基酸生产。另外,氨基酸生产领域另一个新的倾向是海洋生物氨基酸资源的开发和应用,尤其是海洋生物所产生的特殊氨基酸、肽及其衍生物的开发,同时,综合利用海产品加工后的废弃物来生产氨基酸也受到重视。     

The amino acid requirements of Corynebacterium diphtheriae PW 8 substrain CN 2000

AIMS: To determine the amino acid requirement and utilization pattern of Corynebacterium diphtheriae during growth and toxin production. METHODS AND RESULTS: Comparing across different batches of beef-based media, the growth and toxin yield were correlated significantly with nine of the amino acids. The amino acid utilization pattern during growth of C. diphtheriae further showed that only four of the nine amino acids, namely cystine, histidine, aspartate and methionine, were critical for growth of the vaccine strain. Further investigations using synthetic media with combinations of amino acid supplements demonstrated that among the four, cystine was the most growth limiting. CONCLUSIONS: Only certain amino acids are critical for growth and toxin production by C. diphtheriae, cystine being the single most important. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMAPCT OF THE STUDY: Owing to the potential threat from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), a need is recognized by vaccine manufacturers to substitute beef-based production media. An understanding of the specific amino acid requirements would help to develop and optimize alternative production media.     

Bacterial amino acid transport proteins: occurrence, functions, and significance for biotechnological applications

Transport processes play a pivotal role in cellular metabolism, e.g. for the uptake of nutrients or the excretion of metabolic waste products. Moreover, they are also important in biotechnological processes such as the production of various amino acids by the use of microorganisms. The focus of this review is on bacterial amino acid transport systems, in particular those of Corynebacterium glutamicum and Escherichia coli, with respect to their function and biotechnological significance.     

Application of metabolic engineering for the biotechnological production of l-valine

The branched chain amino acid l-valine is an essential nutrient for higher organisms, such as animals and humans. Besides the pharmaceutical application in parenteral nutrition and as synthon for the chemical synthesis of e.g. herbicides or anti-viral drugs, l-valine is now emerging into the feed market, and significant increase of sales and world production is expected. In accordance, well-known microbial production bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Corynebacterium glutamicum strains, have recently been metabolically engineered for efficient l-valine production under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, and the respective cultivation and production conditions have been optimized. This review summarizes the state of the art in l-valine biosynthesis and its regulation in E. coli and C. glutamicum with respect to optimal metabolic network for microbial l-valine production, genetic strain engineering and bioprocess development for l-valine production, and finally, it will shed light on emerging technologies that have the potential to accelerate strain and bioprocess engineering in the near future.     

Fuels and industrial chemicals

The favorite subject of recent literature on biotechnical processes has been ethanol fermentation. This review covers a number of new technics developed, including immobilized biocatalyst technology and bacterial fermentations. Reference is also made to recent work on whey, starch, inulin, and cellulosic materials as substrates for ethanol production. Renewed interest in acetonebutanol fermentation for solvent and liquid fuel production has also been clearly evident during the last two years. Biotechnical production of organic acids has been considered as an alternative route to chemical feedstocks. New developments in amino acid, methane, hydrogen, and hydrocarbon production, and on hydrocarbon oxidation are also briefly covered.     

Dipeptides in nutrition and therapy: cyanophycin-derived dipeptides as natural alternatives and their biotechnological production

The numerous physiological functions of the nonessential amino acid L-aspartate, the semi-essential amino acid L-arginine, and the essential amino acid L-lysine, made them attractive for a wide range of nutritional and/or therapeutic applications. Furthermore, the administration of these amino acids as mixtures or as dipeptides for higher bioavailability is scientifically approved, and various commercial products of these forms are already available on the market. Although the industrial production of dipeptides is, with few exceptions, in an early stage, several strategies have been established and are compared in this review. Additionally, the recent developments in the technical production of aspartate–arginine and aspartate–lysine dipeptides from the biopolymer cyanophycin produced in microorganisms are discussed. Cyanophycin-derived dipeptides are produced exclusively by biotechnological procedures, probably possess higher bioavailability and may be used as better alternatives to the widely applied amino acid mixtures. Thus, the pivotal advantages and the potential applications of these dipeptides as well as of their constituting amino acids in nutrition and therapy are also discussed. Special emphasis is dedicated to arginine due to its numerous physiological roles in many cardiovascular, genitourinary, gastrointestinal, and immune disorders.     

The effect of amino acid supplementation in an industrial Chinese Hamster Ovary process

The main goal in biosimilar development is to increase Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) viability and productivity while maintaining product quality. Despite media and feed optimization during process development, depletion of amino acids still occurs. The aim of the work was to optimize an existing industrial fed batch process by preventing shortage of amino acids and to gather knowledge about CHO metabolism. Several process outputs were evaluated such as cell metabolism, cell viability, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) production, and product quality. First step was to develop and supplement an enriched feed containing depleted amino acids. Abundance of serine and glucose increased lactate production resulting in low viability and low productivity. In the next step, we developed an amino acid feed without serine to avoid the metabolic boost. Supplemented amino acids improved cell viability by 9%; however, mAb production did not increase significantly. In the final step, we limited glucose concentration (<5.55 mmol/L) in the cell culture to avoid the metabolic boost while supplementing an amino acid feed including serine. Data analysis showed that we were able to (a) replace depleted amino acids and avoid metabolic boost, (b) increase viability by 12%, (c) enhance mAb production by 0.5 g/L (total by approximately 10 g), and (d) extend the overall process time of an already developed bioprocess.     

Cell-free translation systems for protein engineering

Cell-free translation systems have developed significantly over the last two decades and improvements in yield have resulted in their use for protein production in the laboratory. These systems have protein engineering applications, such as the production of proteins containing unnatural amino acids and development of proteins exhibiting novel functions. Recently, it has been suggested that cell-free translation systems might be used as the fundamental basis for cell-like systems. We review recent progress in the field of cell-free translation systems and describe their use as tools for protein production and engineering.     

钝齿棒杆菌天冬氨酸激酶基因的克隆和序列分析

运用PCR方法,从野生型钝齿棒杆菌株(Corynebacterium crenatum)AS1542及具有AEC抗性的突变株CD945染色体上分别扩增出天冬氨酸激酶(AK)基因(ask),构建了重组质粒。核苷酸序列分析表明,C.crenatum AS1542AK基因与C.crenatum CD945相比,第1199位的碱基由T变为C,引起酶蛋白β亚基第80位氨基酸从亮氨酸变成脯氨酸。该氨基酸的突变在蛋白结构上位于ACT结构域内,该区受赖氨酸调控。C.crenatum AS1542的AK基因的编码区核苷酸序列与C.glutamicum\,C.flavum及B.lactofermentum相比,同源性分别为97.23%、97.55%和97.62%,酶蛋白氨基酸序列的同源性分别为99.76%、99.52%和99.76%。但在AK基因的启动子上游序列部分与其它棒杆菌相比有较大差异。