Glycoengineering in plants for the development of N-glycan structures compatible with biopharmaceuticals

Plants and plant cells are emerging as promising alternatives for biopharmaceutical production with improved safety and efficiency. Plant cells are capable of performing post-translational modifications (PTMs) similar to those of mammalian cells and are safer than mammalian cells with regard to contamination by infectious pathogens, including animal viruses. However, a major obstacle to producing biopharmaceuticals in plants lies in the fact that plant-derived N-glycans include plant-specific sugar residues such as β1,2-xylose and α1,3-fucose attached to a pentasaccharide core (Man₃GlcNAc₂) as well as β1,3-galactose and α1,4-fucose involved in Lewis a (Le^a) epitope formation that can evoke allergic responses in the human body. In addition, sugar residues such as α1,6-fucose, β1,4-galactose and α2,6-sialic acid, which are thought to play important roles in the activity, transport, delivery and half-life of biopharmaceuticals are absent among the N-glycans naturally found in plants. In order to take advantage of plant cells as a system in which to produce biopharmaceuticals development of plants producing N-glycan structures compatible with biopharmaceuticals is necessary. In this article we summarize the current state of biopharmaceutical production using plants as well as what is known about N-glycosylation processes occurring in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus in plants. Finally, we propose and discuss a strategy for and the associated technical barriers of producing customized N-glycans via removal of enzyme genes that add plant-specific sugar residues and introducing enzyme genes that add sugar residues absent in plants.     

Neural Epidermal Growth Factor-Like Like Protein 2 (NELL2) Promotes Aggregation of Embryonic Carcinoma P19 Cells by Inducing N-Cadherin Expression

NELL2 was first identified as a mammalian homolog of chick NEL (Neural EGF-like) protein. It is almost exclusively expressed in neurons of the rat brain and has been suggested to play a role in neural differentiation. However, there is still no clear evidence for the detailed function of NELL2 in the differentiation of neurons. In this study, we identified NELL2 function during neural differentiation of mouse embryonic carcinoma P19 cells. Endogenous expression of NELL2 in the P19 cells increased in parallel with the neuronal differentiation induced by retinoic acid (RA). We found that the mouse NELL2 promoter contains RA response elements (RAREs) and that treatment with RA increased NELL2 promoter activity. Transfection of P19 cells with NELL2 expression vectors induced a dramatic increase in cell aggregation, resulting in the facilitation of neural differentiation. Moreover, NELL2 significantly increased N-cadherin expression in the P19 cell. These data suggest that NELL2 plays an important role in the regulation of neuronal differentiation via control of N-cadherin expression and cell aggregation.     

A Role for Arabidopsis miR399f in Salt,Drought, and ABA Signaling

MiR399f plays a crucial role in maintaining phosphate homeostasis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Under phosphate starvation conditions, AtMYB2, which plays a role in plant salt and drought stress responses, directly regulates the expression of miR399f. In this study, we found that miR399f also participates in plant responses to abscisic acid (ABA), and to abiotic stresses including salt and drought. Salt and ABA treatment induced the expression of miR399f, as confirmed by histochemical analysis of promoter-GUS fusions. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing miR399f (miR399f-OE) exhibited enhanced tolerance to salt stress and exogenous ABA, but hypersensitivity to drought. Our in silico analysis identified ABF3 and CSP41b as putative target genes of miR399f, and expression analysis revealed that mRNA levels of ABF3 and CSP41b decreased remarkably in miR399f-OE plants under salt stress and in response to treatment with ABA. Moreover, we showed that activation of stress-responsive gene expression in response to salt stress and ABA treatment was impaired in miR399f-OE plants. Thus, these results suggested that in addition to phosphate starvation signaling, miR399f might also modulates plant responses to salt, ABA, and drought, by regulating the expression of newly discovered target genes such as ABF3 and CSP41b.     

Modulation of human β-defensin-2 expression by 17β-estradiol and progesterone in vaginal epithelial cells

We investigated the expression of HBD-1 and -2 in vaginal epithelial cells treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and the effects on HBD-2 expressions by 17β-estradiol and progesterone. Primary vaginal epithelial cells were isolated from a segment of normal anterior vaginal wall obtained during vaginoplasty and were cultured in keratinocyte growth medium and were allowed to undergo their 3rd passage. Expression of HBD-1 and -2 by different stimuli using LPS 0.5 μg/ml, 17β-estradiol 2 nM and progesterone 1 μM was measured by RT-PCR, ELISA and real-time RT-PCR, respectively. HBD-1 was produced constitutively in vaginal epithelial cells and the production of HBD-1 was not influenced by LPS, 17β-estradiol and progesterone, but the production of HBD-2 was increased inducibly by LPS. 17β-Estradiol and progesterone did not change the production of HBD-2 in normal state, but 17β-estradiol increased the production of HBD-2 and progesterone suppressed the production of HBD-2 under the circumstances with infection. The HBD-2 plays an important role at innate host defense on genitourinary tract. The lacks of estrogen during menopause or uses of a progesterone-based oral contraceptive in sexually active women may influence production of HBD-2 in vaginal epithelium and may increase susceptibility to bacterial vaginitis or recurrent UTI.     

Evaluation of insecticidal activity of a bacterial strain, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Serratia</Emphasis> sp. EML-SE1 against diamondback moth

To identify novel bioinsecticidal agents, a bacterial strain, Serratia sp. EML-SE1, was isolated from a dead larva of the lepidopteran diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) collected from a cabbage field in Korea. In this study, the insecticidal activity of liquid cultures in Luria-Bertani broth (LBB) and nutrient broth (NB) of a bacterial strain, Serratia sp. EML-SE1 against thirty 3rd and 4th instar larvae of the diamondback moth was investigated on a Chinese cabbage leaf housed in a round plastic cage (Ø 10×6 cm). 72 h after spraying the cabbage leaf with LBB and NB cultures containing the bacterial strain, the mortalities of the larvae were determined to be 91.7% and 88.3%, respectively. In addition, the insecticidal activity on potted cabbage containing 14 leaves in a growth cage (165×83×124 cm) was found to be similar to that of the plastic cage experiment. The results of this study provided valuable information on the insecticidal activity of the liquid culture of a Serratia species against the diamondback moth.     

Production of Indole-3-Acetic Acid in the Plant-Beneficial Strain Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 Is Negatively Regulated by the Global Sensor Kinase GacS

Certain plant growth–promoting bacteria, such as Pseudomonas fluorescens 89B61 and Bacillus pumilus SE34, secreted high levels of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in tryptophan-amended medium in stationary phase as determined by chromogenic analysis and high-performance liquid chromatography. Two other growth-promoting strains, P. chlororaphis O6 and Serratia marcescens 90-166, did not produce these high levels of IAA. However, when the gacS mutant of P. chlororaphis O6 was grown in tryptophan-supplemented medium, IAA was detected in culture filtrates. IAA production by the gacS mutant in P. chlororaphis O6 was repressed in the tryptophan medium by complementation with the wild-type gacS gene. Thus, the global regulatory Gac system in P. chlororaphis O6 acts as a negative regulator of IAA production from trypophan.     

Functional expression and magnetic nanoparticle-based Immobilization of a protein-engineered marine fish epoxide hydrolase of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mugil cephalus</Emphasis> for enantioselective hydrolysis of racemic styrene oxide

A triple-point mutated fish microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH) gene from Mugil cephalus was expressed in Escherichia coli in the presence of various chaperones to prevent protein aggregations. The enantioselective hydrolytic activity was more than doubled by co-expressing the EH mutant gene with pGro7 plasmid. The highly active EH mutant with a his-tag was immobilized onto magnetic silica assembled with NiO nanoparticles. The immobilized mEH mutant was re-used more than 10 times with less than 10% activity loss. (S)-Styrene oxide with 98% enantiopurity was repeatedly obtained with over 50% of the theoretical yield by the magnetically separable high-performance mEH mutant.     

Optimization of industrial microorganisms: recent advances in synthetic dynamic regulators

Production of biochemicals by industrial fermentation using microorganisms requires maintaining cellular production capacity, because maximal productivity is economically important. High-productivity microbial strains can be developed using static engineering, but these may not maintain maximal productivity throughout the culture period as culture conditions and cell states change dynamically. Additionally, economic reasons limit heterologous protein expression using inducible promoters to prevent metabolic burden for commodity chemical and biofuel production. Recently, synthetic and systems biology has been used to design genetic circuits, precisely controlling gene expression or influencing genetic behavior toward a desired phenotype. Development of dynamic regulators can maintain cellular phenotype in a maximum production state in response to factors including cell concentration, oxygen, temperature, pH, and metabolites. Herein, we introduce dynamic regulators of industrial microorganism optimization and discuss metabolic flux fine control by dynamic regulators in response to metabolites or extracellular stimuli, robust production systems, and auto-induction systems using quorum sensing.