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Identification of the phd gene cluster responsible for phenylpropanoid utilization in Corynebacterium glutamicum

  • Applied microbial and cell physiology
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Abstract

Phenylpropanoids as abundant, lignin-derived compounds represent sustainable feedstocks for biotechnological production processes. We found that the biotechnologically important soil bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum is able to grow on phenylpropanoids such as p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, caffeic acid, and 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propionic acid as sole carbon and energy sources. Global gene expression analyses identified a gene cluster (cg0340-cg0341 and cg0344-cg0347), which showed increased transcription levels in response to phenylpropanoids. The gene cg0340 (designated phdT) encodes for a putative transporter protein, whereas cg0341 and cg0344-cg0347 (phdA-E) encode enzymes involved in the β-oxidation of phenylpropanoids. The phd gene cluster is transcriptionally controlled by a MarR-type repressor encoded by cg0343 (phdR). Cultivation experiments conducted with C. glutamicum strains carrying single-gene deletions showed that loss of phdA, phdB, phdC, or phdE abolished growth of C. glutamicum with all phenylpropanoid substrates tested. The deletion of phdD (encoding for putative acyl-CoA dehydrogenase) additionally abolished growth with the α,β-saturated phenylpropanoid 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propionic acid. However, the observed growth defect of all constructed single-gene deletion strains could be abolished through plasmid-borne expression of the respective genes. These results and the intracellular accumulation of pathway intermediates determined via LC-ESI-MS/MS in single-gene deletion mutants showed that the phd gene cluster encodes for a CoA-dependent, β-oxidative deacetylation pathway, which is essential for the utilization of phenylpropanoids in C. glutamicum.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Petra Geilenkirchen (Forschungszentrum Jülich) for the LC-ESI-MS/MS measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-1: Biotechnology, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Nicolai Kallscheuer, Michael Vogt, Jannick Kappelmann, Karin Krumbach, Stephan Noack, Michael Bott & Jan Marienhagen

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  1. Nicolai Kallscheuer
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  2. Michael Vogt
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  3. Jannick Kappelmann
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  4. Karin Krumbach
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  5. Stephan Noack
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  6. Michael Bott
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  7. Jan Marienhagen
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Correspondence to Jan Marienhagen.

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

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

This study was funded by the European Union Framework Program 7 “BacHBerry” (www.bachberry.eu), Project No. FP7-613,793.

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Nicolai Kallscheuer and Michael Vogt contributed equally to this work.

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Kallscheuer, N., Vogt, M., Kappelmann, J. et al. Identification of the phd gene cluster responsible for phenylpropanoid utilization in Corynebacterium glutamicum . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 1871–1881 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-015-7165-1

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