Tamás Fehér

Emergent properties of reduced-genome Escherichia coli

With the use of synthetic biology, we reduced the Escherichia coli K-12 genome by making planned, precise deletions. The multiple-deletion series (MDS) strains, with genome reductions up to 15%, were designed by identifying nonessential genes and sequences for elimination, including recombinogenic or mobile DNA and cryptic virulence genes, while preserving good growth profiles and protein production. Genome reduction also led to unanticipated beneficial properties: high electroporation efficiency and accurate propagation of recombinant genes and plasmids that were unstable in other strains. Eradication of stress-induced transposition evidently stabilized the MDS genomes and provided some of the new properties.

Reduced evolvability of Escherichia coli MDS42, an IS-less cellular chassis for molecular and synthetic biology applications

BackgroundEvolvability is an intrinsic feature of all living cells. However, newly emerging, evolved features can be undesirable when genetic circuits, designed and fabricated by rational, synthetic biological approaches, are installed in the cell. Streamlined-genome E. coli MDS42 is free of mutation-generating IS elements, and can serve as a host with reduced evolutionary potential.ResultsWe analyze an extreme case of toxic plasmid clone instability, and show that random host IS element hopping, causing inactivation of the toxic cloned sequences, followed by automatic selection of the fast-growing mutants, can prevent the maintenance of a clone developed for vaccine production. Analyzing the molecular details, we identify a hydrophobic protein as the toxic byproduct of the clone, and show that IS elements spontaneously landing in the cloned fragment relieve the cell from the stress by blocking transcription of the toxic gene. Bioinformatics analysis of sequence reads from early shotgun genome sequencing projects, where clone libraries were constructed and maintained in E. coli, suggests that such IS-mediated inactivation of ectopic genes inhibiting the growth of the E. coli cloning host might happen more frequently than generally anticipated, leading to genomic instability and selection of altered clones.ConclusionsDelayed genetic adaptation of clean-genome, IS-free MDS42 host improves maintenance of unstable genetic constructs, and is suggested to be beneficial in both laboratory and industrial settings.

Low-mutation-rate, reduced-genome Escherichia coli: an improved host for faithful maintenance of engineered genetic constructs

BackgroundMolecular mechanisms generating genetic variation provide the basis for evolution and long-term survival of a population in a changing environment. In stable, laboratory conditions, the variation-generating mechanisms are dispensable, as there is limited need for the cell to adapt to adverse conditions. In fact, newly emerging, evolved features might be undesirable when working on highly refined, precise molecular and synthetic biological tasks.ResultsBy constructing low-mutation-rate variants, we reduced the evolutionary capacity of MDS42, a reduced-genome E. coli strain engineered to lack most genes irrelevant for laboratory/industrial applications. Elimination of diversity-generating, error-prone DNA polymerase enzymes involved in induced mutagenesis achieved a significant stabilization of the genome. The resulting strain, while retaining normal growth, showed a significant decrease in overall mutation rates, most notably under various stress conditions. Moreover, the error-prone polymerase-free host allowed relatively stable maintenance of a toxic methyltransferase-expressing clone. In contrast, the parental strain produced mutant clones, unable to produce functional methyltransferase, which quickly overgrew the culture to a high ratio (50% of clones in a 24-h induction period lacked functional methyltransferase activity). The surprisingly large stability-difference observed between the strains was due to the combined effects of high stress-induced mutagenesis in the parental strain, growth inhibition by expression of the toxic protein, and selection/outgrowth of mutants no longer producing an active, toxic enzyme.ConclusionsBy eliminating stress-inducible error-prone DNA-polymerases, the genome of the mobile genetic element-free E. coli strain MDS42 was further stabilized. The resulting strain represents an improved host in various synthetic and molecular biological applications, allowing more stable production of growth-inhibiting biomolecules.

Apoptosis of murine thymocytes induced by extracellular ATP is dose- and cytosolic pH-dependent.

Thymocytes from young Balb/C mice responded to low extracellular ATP (ATPec) doses (< or = 0.3 mM) with a rapid intracellular acidification (mean pH: ca. 0.3 pH unit) that was inhibited by the Ca2+ channel blocker verapamil, or by suramin (50 microM) and TNP-ATP (40 microM), potent P2x (and P2y) purinoreceptor antagonists. ATPec also triggered a remarkable DNA fragmentation and cell shrinkage detectable only at these low doses. DNA fragmentation gradually disappears with increasing [ATPec] above 0.5 mM, with a concomitant dominance of cytosolic alkalinization of the cells. Suramin and TNP-ATP also blocked the ATPec-triggered DNA fragmentation efficiently. oATP, inhibitor of P2z nonspecific ATP-gated membrane pores, and 2 mM extracellular Mg2+ did not influence either the cytosolic acidification or the DNA fragmentation, but almost completely abolished the intracellular alkalinization characteristic of P2z receptor activation at high ATPec doses. Antagonist-sensitivity of the ATPec-induced membrane potential responses indicates that hyperpolarization is associated with intracellular acidification, while rapid depolarization is linked to alkalinization. These data together indicate that the Ca2+-dependent hyperpolarization and cytosolic acidification triggered by low ATPec doses are essential early signals in apoptosis of murine thymocytes and are likely mediated by P2x1 type ATP-gated ion channels. Subset specificity of the early purinergic signals suggests that the double positive thymocytes are most sensitive to ATPec showing both P2z and P2x receptor activation characteristics, the double negative thymocytes preferentially show P2z-type, while single positive (CD4- CD8+ or CD4+ CD8-) thymocytes respond mostly by weaker P2x-type changes, indicating that ATPec, similarly to adenosine may serve as a potential regulator of cell death and differentiation in the thymus.

Validation of RetroPath, a computer-aided design tool for metabolic pathway engineering.

Metabolic engineering has succeeded in biosynthesis of numerous commodity or high value compounds. However, the choice of pathways and enzymes used for production was many times made ad hoc, or required expert knowledge of the specific biochemical reactions. In order to rationalize the process of engineering producer strains, we developed the computer-aided design (CAD) tool RetroPath that explores and enumerates metabolic pathways connecting the endogenous metabolites of a chassis cell to the target compound. To experimentally validate our tool, we constructed 12 top-ranked enzyme combinations producing the flavonoid pinocembrin, four of which displayed significant yields. Namely, our tool queried the enzymes found in metabolic databases based on their annotated and predicted activities. Next, it ranked pathways based on the predicted efficiency of the available enzymes, the toxicity of the intermediate metabolites and the calculated maximum product flux. To implement the top-ranking pathway, our procedure narrowed down a list of nine million possible enzyme combinations to 12, a number easily assembled and tested. One round of metabolic network optimization based on RetroPath output further increased pinocembrin titers 17-fold. In total, 12 out of the 13 enzymes tested in this work displayed a relative performance that was in accordance with its predicted score. These results validate the ranking function of our CAD tool, and open the way to its utilization in the biosynthesis of novel compounds.

Indispensability of horizontally transferred genes and its impact on bacterial genome streamlining

Why are certain bacterial genomes so small and compact? The adaptive genome streamlining hypothesis posits that selection acts to reduce genome size because of the metabolic burden of replicating DNA. To reveal the impact of genome streamlining on cellular traits, we reduced the Escherichia coli genome by up to 20% by deleting regions which have been repeatedly subjects of horizontal transfer in nature. Unexpectedly, horizontally transferred genes not only confer utilization of specific nutrients and elevate tolerance to stresses, but also allow efficient usage of resources to build new cells, and hence influence fitness in routine and stressful environments alike. Genome reduction affected fitness not only by gene loss, but also by induction of a general stress response. Finally, we failed to find evidence that the advantage of smaller genomes would be due to a reduced metabolic burden of replicating DNA or a link with smaller cell size. We conclude that as the potential energetic benefit gained by deletion of short genomic segments is vanishingly small compared with the deleterious side effects of these deletions, selection for reduced DNA synthesis costs is unlikely to shape the evolution of small genomes.

Scarless engineering of the Escherichia coli genome.

E. coli K-12, being one of the best understood and thoroughly analyzed organisms, is the workhorse of genetic, biochemical, and systems biology research, as well as the platform of choice for numerous biotechnological applications. Genome minimization/remodeling is now a feasible approach to further enhance its beneficial characteristics for practical applications. Two genome engineering techniques, a lambda Red-mediated deletion method and a suicide (conditionally replicative) plasmid-based allele replacement procedure are presented here. These techniques utilize homologous recombination, and allow the rapid introduction of virtually any modifications in the genome.

In the fast lane: large-scale bacterial genome engineering.

The last few years have witnessed rapid progress in bacterial genome engineering. The long-established, standard ways of DNA synthesis, modification, transfer into living cells, and incorporation into genomes have given way to more effective, large-scale, robust genome modification protocols. Expansion of these engineering capabilities is due to several factors. Key advances include: (i) progress in oligonucleotide synthesis and in vitro and in vivo assembly methods, (ii) optimization of recombineering techniques, (iii) introduction of parallel, large-scale, combinatorial, and automated genome modification procedures, and (iv) rapid identification of the modifications by barcode-based analysis and sequencing. Combination of the brute force of these techniques with sophisticated bioinformatic design and modeling opens up new avenues for the analysis of gene functions and cellular network interactions, but also in engineering more effective producer strains. This review presents a summary of recent technological advances in bacterial genome engineering.

Bacteriophage recombineering in the lytic state using the lambda red recombinases

Bacteriophages, the historic model organisms facilitating the initiation of molecular biology, are still important candidates of numerous useful or promising biotechnological applications. Development of generally applicable, simple and rapid techniques for their genetic engineering is therefore a validated goal. In this article, we report the use of bacteriophage recombineering with electroporated DNA (BRED), for the first time in a coliphage. With the help of BRED, we removed a copy of mobile element IS1, shown to be active, from the genome of P1vir, a coliphage frequently used in genome engineering procedures. The engineered, IS‐free coliphage, P1virdeltaIS, displayed normal plaque morphology, phage titre, burst size and capacity for generalized transduction. When performing head‐to‐head competition experiments, P1vir could not outperform P1virdeltaIS, further indicating that the specific copy of IS1 plays no direct role in lytic replication. Overall, P1virdeltaIS provides a genome engineering vehicle free of IS contamination, and BRED is likely to serve as a generally applicable tool for engineering bacteriophage genomes in a wide range of taxa.

Computer-aided design for metabolic engineering

The development and application of biotechnology-based strategies has had a great socio-economical impact and is likely to play a crucial role in the foundation of more sustainable and efficient industrial processes. Within biotechnology, metabolic engineering aims at the directed improvement of cellular properties, often with the goal of synthesizing a target chemical compound. The use of computer-aided design (CAD) tools, along with the continuously emerging advanced genetic engineering techniques have allowed metabolic engineering to broaden and streamline the process of heterologous compound-production. In this work, we review the CAD tools available for metabolic engineering with an emphasis, on retrosynthesis methodologies. Recent advances in genetic engineering strategies for pathway implementation and optimization are also reviewed as well as a range of bionalytical tools to validate in silico predictions. A case study applying retrosynthesis is presented as an experimental verification of the output from Retropath, the first complete automated computational pipeline applicable to metabolic engineering. Applying this CAD pipeline, together with genetic reassembly and optimization of culture conditions led to improved production of the plant flavonoid pinocembrin. Coupling CAD tools with advanced genetic engineering strategies and bioprocess optimization is crucial for enhanced product yields and will be of great value for the development of non-natural products through sustainable biotechnological processes.