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Monorhamnolipids and 3-(3-hydroxyalkanoyloxy)alkanoic acids (HAAs) production using Escherichia coli as a heterologous host

  • Applied Genetics and Molecular Biotechnology
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Abstract

Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces the biosurfactants rhamnolipids and 3-(3-hydroxyalkanoyloxy)alkanoic acids (HAAs). In this study, we report the production of one family of rhamnolipids, specifically the monorhamnolipids, and of HAAs in a recombinant Escherichia coli strain expressing P. aeruginosa rhlAB operon. We found that the availability in E. coli of dTDP-l-rhamnose, a substrate of RhlB, restricts the production of monorhamnolipids in E. coli. We present evidence showing that HAAs and the fatty acid dimer moiety of rhamnolipids are the product of RhlA enzymatic activity. Furthermore, we found that in the recombinant E. coli, these compounds have the same chain length of the fatty acid dimer moiety as those produced by P. aeruginosa. These data suggest that it is RhlAB specificity, and not the hydroxyfatty acid relative abundance in the bacterium, that determines the profile of the fatty acid moiety of rhamnolipids and HAAs. The rhamnolipids level produced in recombinant E. coli expressing rhlAB is lower than the P. aeruginosa level and much higher than those reported by others in E. coli, showing that this metabolic engineering strategy lead to an increased rhamnolipids production in this heterologous host.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Rosalba Sánchez and Marisela Aguirre-Ramírez for technical assistance. This research was founded in part by Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México through grants DGAPA PAPIIT IIX201404 and IN203305.

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Author notes

  1. Gloria Soberón-Chávez

    Present address: , Apdo. Postal 70228 , México, D. F. 04510, Mexico

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ingeniería Celular y Biocatálisis, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico, Mexico

    Natividad Cabrera-Valladares & Clarita Olvera

  2. INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, Laval, Quebec, Canada

    Anne-Pascale Richardson, Eric Déziel & François Lépine

  3. Programa de Genómica Computacional, Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, UNAM, Mexico, Mexico

    Luis Gerardo Treviño

  4. Departamento de Biología Molecular y Biotecnología, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, UNAM, Mexico, Mexico

    Gloria Soberón-Chávez

Authors
  1. Natividad Cabrera-Valladares
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  2. Anne-Pascale Richardson
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  3. Clarita Olvera
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  4. Luis Gerardo Treviño
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  5. Eric Déziel
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  6. François Lépine
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  7. Gloria Soberón-Chávez
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Correspondence to Gloria Soberón-Chávez.

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Cabrera-Valladares, N., Richardson, AP., Olvera, C. et al. Monorhamnolipids and 3-(3-hydroxyalkanoyloxy)alkanoic acids (HAAs) production using Escherichia coli as a heterologous host. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 73, 187–194 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-006-0468-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-006-0468-5

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