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A novel riboregulator switch system of gene expression for enhanced microbial production of succinic acid

  • Metabolic Engineering and Synthetic Biology - Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

In this paper, a novel riboregulator Switch System of Gene Expression including an OFF-TO-ON switch and an ON-TO-OFF switch was designed to regulate the expression state of target genes between “ON” and “OFF” by switching the identifiability of ribosome recognition site (RBS) based on the thermodynamic stability of different RNA–RNA hybridizations between RBS and small noncoding RNAs. The proposed riboregulator switch system was employed for the fermentative production of succinic acid using an engineered strain of E. coli JW1021, during which the expression of mgtC gene was controlled at “ON” state and that of pepc and ecaA genes were controlled at the “OFF” state in the lag phase and switched to the “OFF” and “ON” state once the strain enters the logarithmic phase. The results showed that using the strain of JW1021, the yield and productivity of succinic acid can reach 0.91 g g−1 and 3.25 g L−1 h−1, respectively, much higher than those using the strains without harboring the riboregulator switch system.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Dr. Rachel Chen (Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA) for helping data analysis. This work is financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFB0603105), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21606026, 21776025), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (106112017CDJXY220005, 106112017CDJXF220009, 106112017CDJPT220001, 106112017CDJQJ228809, and 106112017CDJXFLX0014), and China Scholarship Council (201506050056).

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Author notes

  1. Jing Wang and Haoyuan Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, P. O. box 94#, Shazheng Street 174, Shapingba District, Chongqing, 400044, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Wang, Haoyuan Wang, Le Yang & Lichun Dong

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Center for Green Developmentin Wuling Moutain Area, Research Center for Environmental Monitoring, Hazard Prevention of Three Gorges Reservoir, Yangtze Normal University, Fuling, Chongqing, 408100, People’s Republic of China

    Liping Lv & Lichun Dong

  3. School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Renewable Bioproducts Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, 30332, USA

    Jing Wang, Le Yang & Zhe Zhang

  4. Key Lahoratory of Catalysis and Functional Organic Molecule of Chongqing, College of Environment and Resource, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing, 400067, People’s Republic of China

    Ning Li

  5. Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems of the Ministry of Education, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 40004, People’s Republic of China

    Lichun Dong

  6. Institute of Energy Resources, Hebei Academy of Science, Shijiazhuang, 050081, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Bin Ren

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  1. Jing Wang
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Correspondence to Lichun Dong or Ning Li.

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Wang, J., Wang, H., Yang, L. et al. A novel riboregulator switch system of gene expression for enhanced microbial production of succinic acid. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 45, 253–269 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-018-2019-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-018-2019-3

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