Light-powered Escherichia coli cell division for chemical production.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32385264.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-16154-3 and PMC identifier 7210317.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Cell division can perturb the metabolic performance of industrial microbes. The C period of cell division starts from the initiation to the termination of DNA replication, whereas the D period is the bacterial division process. Here, we first shorten the C and D periods of E. coli by controlling the expression of the ribonucleotide reductase NrdAB and division proteins FtsZA through blue light and near-infrared light activation, respectively. It increases the specific surface area to 3.7 μm<sup>-1</sup> and acetoin titer to 67.2 g·L<sup>-1</sup>. Next, we prolong the C and D periods of E. coli by regulating the expression of the ribonucleotide reductase NrdA and division protein inhibitor SulA through blue light activation-repression and near-infrared (NIR) light activation, respectively. It improves the cell volume to 52.6 μm<sup>3</sup> and poly(lactate-co-3-hydroxybutyrate) titer to 14.31 g·L<sup>-1</sup>. Thus, the optogenetic-based cell division regulation strategy can improve the efficiency of microbial cell factories.
Medical subject headings
- Cell Division
- Escherichia coli
- Light