| 1. |
- Guevara-Martínez, Mónica, 1989-
(författare)
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Strain- and bioprocess-design strategies to increase production of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate by Escherichia coli
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Microbial bio-based processes have emerged as an alternative to replace fossil-based processes for the production of fuels and chemicals. (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) is a medium-value chemical that has gained special attention as a precursor of antibiotics and vitamins, as a monomer for the synthesis of tailor-made polyesters and as a nutritional source for eukaryotic cells. By integrating strain and bioprocess-design strategies the work of this thesis has aimed to improve microbial 3HB production by the well-studied platform organism Escherichia coli (strain AF1000) expressing a thiolase and a reductase from Halomonas boliviensis.Uncoupling growth and product formation by NH4+- or PO43-- limited fed-batch cultivations allowed for 3HB titers of 4.1 and 6.8 g L-1 (Paper I). Increasing the NADPH supply by overexpression of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (zwf) resulted in 1.7 times higher 3HB yield compared to not overexpressing zwf in NH4+ depleted conditions (Paper II). To increase 3HB production in high-cell density cultures, strain BL21 was selected as a low acetate-forming, 3HB-producing platform. BL21 grown in NH4+ limited fed-batch cultivations resulted in 2.3 times higher 3HB titer (16.3 g L-1) compared to strain AF1000 (Paper III). Overexpression of the native E. coli thioesterase “yciA”, identified as the largest contributor in 3HB-CoA hydrolysis, resulted in 2.6 times higher 3HB yield compared to AF1000 not overexpressing yciA. Overexpressing zwf and yciA in NH4+ depleted fed-batch experiments resulted in 2 times higher total 3HB yield (0.210 g g-1) compared to AF1000 only overexpressing zwf (Paper IV). Additionally, using 3HB as a model product, the bacterial artificial chromosome was presented as a simple platform for performing pathway design and optimization in E. coli (Paper V). While directly relevant for 3HB production, these findings also contribute to the knowledge on how to improve the production of a chemical for the development of robust and scalable processes.
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| 2. |
- Perez-Zabaleta, Mariel, 1987-
(författare)
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Metabolic engineering and cultivation strategies for recombinant production of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Metabolic engineering and process engineering are two powerful disciplines to design and improve microbial processes for sustainable production of an extensive number of compounds ranging from chemicals to pharmaceuticals. The aim of this thesis was to synergistically combine these two disciplines to improve the production of a model chemical called (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB), which is a medium-value product with a stereocenter and two functional groups. These features make 3HB an interesting building block, especially for the pharmaceutical industry. Recombinant production of 3HB was achieved by expression of two enzymes from Halomonas boliviensis in the model microorganism Escherichia coli, which is a microbial cell factory with proven track record and abundant knowledge on its genome, metabolism and physiology.Investigations on cultivation strategies demonstrated that nitrogen-depleted conditions had the biggest impact on 3HB yields, while nitrogen-limited cultivations predominantly increased 3HB titers and volumetric productivities. To further increase 3HB production, metabolic engineering strategies were investigated to decrease byproduct formation, enhance NADPH availability and improve the overall 3HB-pathway activity. Overexpression of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (zwf) increased cofactor availability and together with the overexpression of acyl-CoA thioesterase YciA resulted in a 2.7-fold increase of the final 3HB concentration, 52% of the theoretical product yield and a high specific productivity (0.27 g g-1 h-1). In a parallel strategy, metabolic engineering and process design resulted in an E. coli BL21 strain with the hitherto highest reported volumetric 3HB productivity (1.52 g L-1 h-1) and concentration (16.3 g L-1) using recombinant production. The concepts developed in this thesis can be applied to industrial 3HB production processes, but also advance the knowledge base to benefit design and expansion of the product range of biorefineries.
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| 3. |
- Björlenius, Berndt, 1963-
(författare)
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Pharmaceuticals – improved removal from municipal wastewater and their occurrence in the Baltic Sea
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Pharmaceutical residues are found in the environment due to extensive use in human and veterinary medicine. The active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) have a potential impact in non-target organisms. Municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are not designed to remove APIs.In this thesis, two related matters are addressed 1) evaluation of advanced treatment to remove APIs from municipal wastewater and 2) the prevalence and degradation of APIs in the Baltic Sea.A stationary pilot plant with nanofiltration (NF) and a mobile pilot plant with activated carbon and ozonation were designed to study the removal of APIs at four WWTPs. By NF, removal reached 90%, but the retentate needed further treatment. A predictive model of the rejection of APIs by NF was developed based on the variables: polarizability, globularity, ratio hydrophobic to polar water accessible surface and charge. The pilot plants with granular and powdered activated carbon (GAC) and (PAC) removed more than 95% of the APIs. Screening of activated carbon products was essential, because of a broad variation in adsorption capacity. Recirculation of PAC or longer contact time, increased the removal of APIs. Ozonation with 5-7 g/m3 ozone resulted in 87-95% removal of APIs. Elevated activity and transcription of biomarkers indicated presence of xenobiotics in regular effluent. Chemical analysis of APIs, together with analysis of biomarkers, were valuable and showed that GAC-filtration and ozonation can be implemented to remove APIs in WWTPs, with decreased biomarker responses.Sampling of the Baltic Sea showed presence of APIs in 41 out of 43 locations. A developed grey box model predicted concentration and half-life of carbamazepine in the Baltic Sea to be 1.8 ng/L and 1300 d respectively.In conclusion, APIs were removed to 95% by GAC or PAC treatment. The additional treatment resulted in lower biomarker responses than today and some APIs were shown to be widespread in the aquatic environment.
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| 4. |
- Bäcklund, Emma
(författare)
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Impact of glucose uptake rate on recombinant protein production in Escherichia coli
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Escherichia coli (E. coli) is an attractive host for production of recombinant proteins, since it generally provides a rapid and economical means to achieve high product quantities. In this thesis, the impact of the glucose uptake rate on the production of recombinant proteins was studied, aiming at improving and optimising production of recombinant proteins in E. coli. E. coli can be cultivated to high cell densities in bioreactors by applying the fed-batch technique, which offers a means to control the glucose uptake rate. One objective of this study was to find a method for control of the glucose uptake rate in small-scale cultivation, such as microtitre plates and shake flasks. Strains with mutations in the phosphotransferase system (PTS) where used for this purpose. The mutants had lower uptake rates of glucose, resulting in lower growth rates and lower accumulation of acetic acid in comparison to the wild type. By using the mutants in batch cultivations, the formation of acetic acid to levels detrimental to cell growth could be avoided, and ten times higher cell density was reached. Thus, the use of the mutant strains represent a novel, simple alternative to fed-batch cultures. The PTS mutants were applied for production of integral membrane proteins in order to investigate if the reduced glucose uptake rate of the mutants was beneficial for their production. The mutants were able to produce three out of five integral membrane proteins that were not possible to produce by the wild-type strain. The expression level of one selected membrane protein was increased when using the mutants and the expression level appeared to be a function of strain, glucose uptake rate and acetic acid accumulation. For production purposes, it is not uncommon that the recombinant proteins are secreted to the E. coli periplasm. However, one drawback with secretion is the undesired leakage of periplasmic products to the medium. The leakage of the product to the medium was studied as a function of the feed rate of glucose in fed-batch cultivations and they were found to correlate. It was also shown that the amount of outer membrane proteins was affected by the feed rate of glucose and by secretion of a recombinant product to the periplasm. The cell surface is another compartment where recombinant proteins can be expressed. Surface display of proteins is a potentially attractive production strategy since it offers a simple purification scheme and possibilities for on-cell protein characterisation, and may in some cases also be the only viable option. The AIDA-autotransporter was applied for surface display of the Z domain of staphylococcal protein A under control of the aidA promoter. Z was expressed in an active form and was accessible to the medium. Expression was favoured by growth in minimal medium and it seemed likely that expression was higher at higher feed rates of glucose during fed-batch cultivation. A repetitive batch process was developed, where relatively high cell densities were achieved whilst maintaining a high expression level of Z.
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| 5. |
- Gustavsson, Martin, 1984-
(författare)
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Influence of recombinant passenger properties and process conditions on surface expression using the AIDA-I autotransporter
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Surface expression has attracted much recent interest, and it has been suggested for a variety of applications. Two such applications are whole-cell biocatalysis and the creation of live vaccines. For successful implementation of these applications there is a need for flexible surface expression systems that can yield a high level of expression with a variety of recombinant fusion proteins. The aim of this work was thus to create a surface expression system that would fulfil these requirements. A novel surface expression system based on the AIDA-I autotransporter was created with the key qualities being are good, protein-independent detection of the expression through the presence of two epitope tags flanking the recombinant protein, and full modularity of the different components of the expression cassette. To evaluate the flexibility of this construct, 8 different model proteins with potential use as live-vaccines or biocatalysts were expressed and their surface expression levels were analysed. Positive signals were detected for all of the studied proteins using antibody labelling followed by flow cytometric analysis, showing the functionality of the expression system. The ratio of the signal from the two epitope tags indicated that several of the studied proteins were present mainly in proteolytically degraded forms, which was confirmed by Western blot analysis of the outer membrane protein fraction. This proteolysis was suggested to be due to protein-dependent stalling of translocation intermediates in the periplasm, with indications that larger size and higher cysteine content had a negative impact on expression levels. Process design with reduced cultivation pH and temperature was used to increase total surface expression yield of one of the model proteins by 400 %, with a simultaneous reduction of proteolysis by a third. While not sufficient to completely remove proteolysis, this shows that process design can be used to greatly increase surface expression. Thus, it is recommended that future work combine this with engineering of the bacterial strain or the expression system in order to overcome the observed proteolysis and maximise the yield of surface expressed protein.
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| 6. |
- Gustavsson, Martin, 1984-
(författare)
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Surface expression using the AIDA autotransporter : Towards live vaccines and whole-cell biocatalysis
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The area of surface expression has gathered a lot of interest from research groups all over the world and much work is performed in the area. Autotransporters have been used for surface expression in Gram-negative bacteria. One of the more commonly used autotransporters is the Adhesin Involved in Diffuse Adherence (AIDA) of pathogenic Escherichia coli. The surface expression of enzymes and vaccine epitopes offer several advantages. Surface expressed enzymes gain similar properties to immobilised enzymes, mainly simplified handling and separation using centrifugation. Surface expressed vaccine epitopes can have longer half-lives inside the animal that is to be immunized and surface groups on the host cell can act as adjuvants, increasing the immune response and leading to a better immunisation. However, while much basic research is directed towards mechanisms of surface expression using autotransporters there are few reports regarding production of surface expressed protein. Thus the aim of this work was the optimisation of the yield and productivity of surface expressed protein. Protein Z, an IgG-binding domain of Staphylococcal protein A, was used as a model protein for the investigation of which cultivation parameters influenced surface expression. The choice of cultivation medium gave the largest impact on expression, which was attributed to effects based on the induction of the native promoter of AIDA. The AIDA system was then used for the expression of two Salmonella surface proteins, SefA and H:gm, with potential for use as vaccine epitopes. SefA was verified located on the cell surface, and H:gm was found in the outer membrane of the host cell, though only in proteolytically truncated forms lacking the His6-tag used for detection. This proteolysis persisted in E. coli strains deficient for the outer membrane protease OmpT and was concluded to be dependent on other proteases. The removal of proteolysis and further optimisation of the yield of surface-expressed protein are important goals of further work.
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| 7. |
- Jarmander, Johan, 1983-
(författare)
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Improved detection and performance of surface expression from the AIDA-I autotransporter
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Surface expression of recombinant proteins has attracted a lot of attention due to its potential in applications such as enzyme production, vaccine delivery and bioremediation. Autotransporters have been used for surface expression of a variety of proteins, but the expression systems reported in literature have typically been inflexible and incapable of detecting proteolysis, thereby limiting surface expression yield.In this thesis, a modular surface expression system, utilizing dual tag detection, was therefore created. It was based on the adhesin involved in diffuse adherence (AIDA-I) autotransporter, and was here used to express the model proteins SefA and H:gm on the cell surface of Escherichia coli. Due to the dual tag detection system, proteolysed H:gm could be successfully verified on the cell surface. By optimizing cultivation conditions, surface expression yield of SefA was increased by 300 %, and proteolysis reduced by 33 %. While proteolysis could not be eliminated completely, the work presented in this thesis is a major step towards a general system for surface expression of a wide range of proteins in varied applications.
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| 8. |
- Jarmander, Johan
(författare)
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Strategies for improved Escherichia coli bioprocessing performance
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Escherichia coli has a proven track record for successful production of anything from small molecules like organic acids to large therapeutic proteins, and has thus important applications in both R&D and commercial production. The versatility of this organism in combination with the accumulated knowledge of its genome, metabolism and physiology, has allowed for development of specialty strains capable of performing very specific tasks, opening up opportunities within new areas. The work of this thesis has been devoted to alter membrane transport proteins and the regulation of these, in order for E. coli to find further application within two such important areas.The first area was vaccine development, where it was investigated if E. coli could be a natural vehicle for live vaccine production. The hypothesis was that the introduction and manipulation of a protein surface translocation system from pathogenic E. coli would result in stable expression levels of Salmonella subunit antigens on the surface of laboratory E. coli. While different antigen combinations were successfully expressed on the surface of E. coli, larger proteins were affected by proteolysis, which manipulation of cultivation conditions could reduce, but not eliminate completely. The surface expressed antigens were further capable of inducing proinflammatory responses in epithelial cells.The second area was biorefining. By altering the regulation of sugar assimilation, it was hypothesized that simultaneous uptake of the sugars present in lignocellulose hydrolyzates could be achieved, thereby improving the yield and productivity of important bio-based chemicals. The dual-layered catabolite repression was identified and successfully removed in the engineered E. coli, and the compound (R)-3-hydroxybutyric acid was produced from simultaneous assimilation of glucose, xylose and arabinose.
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| 9. |
- Andersson, Christian
(författare)
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Biobased production of succinic acid by Escherichia coli fermentation
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The prospects of peak oil, climate change and the dependency of fossil carbon have urged research and development of production methods for the manufacture of fuels and chemicals from renewable resources (biomass). The present thesis illustrates different aspects of biobased succinic acid production by a metabolically engineered E. coli strain. The main areas of the thesis are sugar utilisation and feedstock flexibility, and fermentation inhibition, both due to toxic compound derived from the raw material and the fermentation products themselves.The first part of this thesis aimed to investigate the fermentation characteristics of AFP184 in a medium consisting of corn steep liquor, inorganic salts and different sugar sources without supplementation with high-cost nutrients such as yeast extract and peptone. The effects of different sugars, sucrose, glucose, fructose, xylose, equal mixtures of glucose-fructose and glucose-xylose, on succinic acid production kinetics and yields in an industrially relevant medium were investigated. AFP184 was able to utilise all sugars and sugar combinations except sucrose for biomass generation and succinate production. Using glucose resulted in the highest yield, 0.83 (g succinic acid per g sugar consumed anaerobically). Using a high initial sugar concentration resulted in volumetric productivities of almost 3 g L-1 h-1, which is above estimated values for economically feasible production. However, succinic acid production ceased at final concentrations greater than 40 g L-1. To further increase succinic acid concentrations, fermentations using NH4OH, NaOH, KOH, K2CO3, and Na2CO3 as neutralising agents were performed and compared. It was shown that substantial improvements could be made by using alkali bases to neutralise the fermentations. The highest concentrations and productivities were achieved when Na2CO3 was used, 77 g L-1 and 3 g L-1 h-1 respectively. A gradual decrease in succinate productivity was observed during the fermentations, which was shown to be due to succinate accumulation in the broth and not as a result of the addition of neutralising agent or the subsequent increase in osmolarity.To maintain high succinate productivity by keeping a low extracellular succinic acid concentration fermentations were interrupted and cells recovered and resuspended in fresh media. By removing the succinate it was possible to maintain high succinic acid productivity for a prolonged time. Cells subjected to high concentrations of succinate were also able to regain high productivity once transferred into a succinate-free medium.In the last part of the thesis succinic acid production from softwood dilute acid hydrolysates was demonstrated. This study involved establishing the degree of detoxification necessary for growth and fermentation using industrial hydrolysates. Detoxification by treatment with lime and/or activated carbon was investigated and the results show that it was possible to produce succinate from softwood hydrolysates in yields comparable to those for synthetic sugars.The work done in this thesis increases the understanding of succinic acid production with AFP184, illustrate its limitations, and suggests improvements in the current technology with the long term aim of increasing the economical feasibility of biochemical succinic acid production.
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| 10. |
- Bäcklund, Emma
(författare)
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Growth rate control of periplasmic product retention in Escherichia coli
- 2008
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The recombinant product is secreted to the periplasm in many processes where E. coli is used as host. One drawback with secretion is the undesired leakage of the periplasmic products to the medium. The aim of this work was to find strategies to influence the periplasmic retention of recombinant products. We have focused on the role of the specific growth rate, a parameter that is usually controlled in industrial bioprocesses. The hypothesis was that the stability of the outer membrane in E. coli is gained from a certain combination of specific phospholipids and fatty acids on one side and the amount and specificity of the outer membrane proteins on the other side, and that the specific growth rate influences this structure and therefore can be used to control the periplasmic retention. We found that is possible to control the periplasmic retention by the growth rate. The leakage of the product increased as the growth rate increased. It was however also found that a higher growth rate resulted in increased productivity. This resulted in equal amounts of product inside the cells regardless of growth rate. We also showed that the growth rate influenced the outer membrane composition with respect to OmpF and LamB while OmpA was largely unaffected. The total amount of outer membrane proteins decreased as the growth rate increased. There were further reductions in outer membrane protein accumulation when the recombinant product was secreted to the periplasm. The lowered amount of outer membrane proteins may have contributed to the reduced ability for the cell to retain the product in the periplasm. The traditional way to control the growth rate is through a feed of substrate in a fed-batch process. In this work we used strains with a set of mutations in the phosphotransferase system (PTS) with a reduced uptake rate of glucose to investigate if these strains could be used for growth rate control in batch cultivations without the use of fed-batch control equipment. The hypothesis was that the lowering of the growth rate on cell level would result in the establishment of fed-batch similar conditions. This study showed that it is possible to control the growth rate in batch cultivations by using mutant strains with a decreased level of substrate uptake rate. The mutants also produced equivalent amounts of acetic acid as the wild type did in fed-batch cultivation with the same growth rate. The oxygen consumption rates were also comparable. A higher cell density was reached with one of the mutants than with the wild type in batch cultivations. It is possible to control the growth rate by the use of the mutants in small-scale batch cultivations without fed-batch control equipment.
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