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Genomic and metabolomic analysis of Bacillus licheniformis with enhanced poly-γ-glutamic acid production through atmospheric and room temperature plasma mutagenesis

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Abstract

Poly-γ-glutamic acid is an extracellular polymeric substance with various applications owing to its valuable properties of biodegradability, flocculating activity, water solubility, and nontoxicity. However, the ability of natural strains to produce poly-γ-glutamic acid is low. Atmospheric and room temperature plasma was applied in this study to conduct mutation breeding of Bacillus licheniformis CGMCC 2876, and a mutant strain M32 with an 11% increase in poly-γ-glutamic acid was obtained. Genome resequencing analysis identified 7 nonsynonymous mutations of ppsC encoding lipopeptide synthetase associated with poly-γ-glutamic acid metabolic pathways. From molecular docking, more binding sites and higher binding energy were speculated between the mutated plipastatin synthase subunit C and glutamate, which might contribute to the higher poly-γ-glutamic acid production. Moreover, the metabolic mechanism analysis revealed that the upregulated amino acids of M32 provided substrates for glutamate and promoted the conversion between l- and d-glutamate acids. In addition, the glycolytic pathway is enhanced, leading to a better capacity for using glucose. The maximum poly-γ-glutamic acid yield of 14.08 g·L−1 was finally reached with 30 g·L−1 glutamate.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 32170061 and 31871779).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    Xiaoyu Wei, Lijie Yang, Haiyan Wang, Yiyuan Xu, Yue Weng, Mingfeng Cao & Ning He

  2. College of Food and Biological Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Qingbiao Li

  3. College of Life Science, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, 464000, China

    Zhen Chen

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  1. Xiaoyu Wei
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  2. Lijie Yang
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  3. Haiyan Wang
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  4. Zhen Chen
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  6. Yue Weng
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  9. Ning He
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Correspondence to Qingbiao Li or Ning He.

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Wei, X., Yang, L., Wang, H. et al. Genomic and metabolomic analysis of Bacillus licheniformis with enhanced poly-γ-glutamic acid production through atmospheric and room temperature plasma mutagenesis. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 16, 1751–1760 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2211-x

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