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Inactivation of the virulence factors from 2,3-butanediol-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae

  • Biotechnological products and process engineering
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Abstract

The microbiological production of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO) has attracted considerable attention as an alternative way to produce high-value chemicals from renewable sources. Among the number of 2,3-BDO-producing microorganisms, Klebsiella pneumoniae has been studied most extensively and is known to produce large quantity of 2,3-BDO from a range of substrates. On the other hand, the pathogenic characteristics of the bacteria have limited its industrial applications. In this study, two major virulence traits, outer core LPS and fimbriae, were removed through homologous recombination from 2,3-BDO-producing K. pneumoniae 2242 to expand its uses to the industrial scale. The K. pneumoniae 2242 ∆wabG mutant strain was found to have an impaired capsule, which significantly reduced its ability to bind to the mucous layer and evade the phagocytic activity of macrophage. The association with the human ileocecal epithelial cell, HCT-8, and the bladder epithelial cell, T-24, was also reduced dramatically in the K. pneumoniae 2242 ∆fimA mutant strain that was devoid of fimbriae. However, the growth rate and production yield for 2,3-BDO were unaffected. The K. pneumoniae strains developed in this study, which are devoid of the major virulence factors, have a high potential for the efficient and sustainable production of 2,3-BDO.

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Funding

This study was funded by the R&D Program of MKE/KEIT (No. 10035578, development of 2,3-butanediol and derivative production technology for the C-Zero bio-platform industry).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Compliance with ethical standards

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Biotechnology, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, 446-701, South Korea

    Duyen Thi Ngoc Huynh, Ah-Young Kim, In-Hye Seol, Samuel Jung, Min-Cheol Lim, Wooki Kim & Young-Rok Kim

  2. Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, 446-701, South Korea

    Duyen Thi Ngoc Huynh, Ah-Young Kim, In-Hye Seol, Samuel Jung, Min-Cheol Lim, Wooki Kim & Young-Rok Kim

  3. Department of Food Science and Technology, Seoul Women’s University, Seoul, 139-774, South Korea

    Jeong-A Lee, Mi-Rae Jo & Soo-Jin Choi

  4. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul, 121-742, South Korea

    Borim Kim & Jinwon Lee

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  1. Duyen Thi Ngoc Huynh
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  2. Ah-Young Kim
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  9. Borim Kim
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  10. Jinwon Lee
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  11. Wooki Kim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Young-Rok Kim.

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Fig. S1

The correlation between OD and cell mass of K. pneumoniae 2242 and its isogenic mutant strains in LB culture at 37°C for 16 h (PDF 58 kb)

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Huynh, D.T.N., Kim, AY., Seol, IH. et al. Inactivation of the virulence factors from 2,3-butanediol-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 99, 9427–9438 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6861-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-6861-1

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