| 1. |
- Guevara-Martínez, Mónica, 1989-
(författare)
-
Strain- and bioprocess-design strategies to increase production of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate by Escherichia coli
- 2019
-
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.
|
|
| 2. |
- Perez-Zabaleta, Mariel, 1987-
(författare)
-
Metabolic engineering and cultivation strategies for recombinant production of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate
- 2019
-
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.
|
|
| 3. |
- Björlenius, Berndt, 1963-
(författare)
-
Pharmaceuticals – improved removal from municipal wastewater and their occurrence in the Baltic Sea
- 2018
-
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.
|
|
| 4. |
- Jarmander, Johan
(författare)
-
Strategies for improved Escherichia coli bioprocessing performance
- 2015
-
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.
|
|
| 5. |
- Guevara-Martínez, Mónica, 1989-, et al.
(författare)
-
The role of the acyl-CoA thioesterase YciA in the production of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate by recombinant Escherichia coli
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. - : Springer. - 0175-7598 .- 1432-0614. ; , s. 1-12
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biotechnologically produced (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate is an interesting pre-cursor for antibiotics, vitamins, and other molecules benefitting from enantioselective production. An often-employed pathway for (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate production in recombinant E. coli consists of three-steps: (1) condensation of two acetyl-CoA molecules to acetoacetyl-CoA, (2) reduction of acetoacetyl-CoA to (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate-CoA, and (3) hydrolysis of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate-CoA to (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate by thioesterase. Whereas for the first two steps, many proven heterologous candidate genes exist, the role of either endogenous or heterologous thioesterases is less defined. This study investigates the contribution of four native thioesterases (TesA, TesB, YciA, and FadM) to (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate production by engineered E. coli AF1000 containing a thiolase and reductase from Halomonas boliviensis. Deletion of yciA decreased the (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate yield by 43%, whereas deletion of tesB and fadM resulted in only minor decreases. Overexpression of yciA resulted in doubling of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate titer, productivity, and yield in batch cultures. Together with overexpression of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, this resulted in a 2.7-fold increase in the final (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate concentration in batch cultivations and in a final (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate titer of 14.3 g L-1 in fed-batch cultures. The positive impact of yciA overexpression in this study, which is opposite to previous results where thioesterase was preceded by enzymes originating from different hosts or where (S)-3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA was the substrate, shows the importance of evaluating thioesterases within a specific pathway and in strains and cultivation conditions able to achieve significant product titers. While directly relevant for (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate production, these findings also contribute to pathway improvement or decreased by-product formation for other acyl-CoA-derived products.
|
|
| 6. |
- Hörnström, David, et al.
(författare)
-
Molecular optimization of autotransporter-based tyrosinase surface display
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Biomembranes. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 0005-2736 .- 1879-2642. ; 1862:2, s. 486-494
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Display of recombinant enzymes on the cell surface of Gram-negative bacteria is a desirable feature with applications in whole-cell biocatalysis, affinity screening and degradation of environmental pollutants. One common technique for recombinant protein display on the Escherichia colt surface is autotransport. Successful autotransport of an enzyme largely depends on the following: (1) the size, sequence and structure of the displayed protein, (2) the cultivation conditions, and (3) the choice of the autotransporter expression system. Common problems with autotransporter-mediated surface display include low expression levels and truncated fusion proteins, which both limit the cell-specific activity. The present study investigated an autotransporter expression system for improved display of tyrosinase on the surface of E. coli by evaluating different variants of the autotransporter vector including: promoter region, signal peptide, the recombinant passenger, linker regions, and the autotransporter translocation unit itself. The impact of these changes on translocation to the cell surface was monitored by the cell-specific activity as well as antibody-based flow cytometric analysis of full-length and degraded passenger. Applying these strategies, the amount of displayed full-length tyrosinase on the cell surface was increased, resulting in an overall 5-fold increase of activity as compared to the initial autotransport expression system. Surprisingly, heterologous expression using 7 different translocation units all resulted in functional expression and only differed 1.6-fold in activity. This study provides a basis for broadening of the range of proteins that can be surface displayed and the development of new autotransporter-based processes in industrial-scale whole-cell biocatalysis.
|
|
| 7. |
- Kårelid, Victor, 1989-
(författare)
-
Towards application of activated carbon treatment for pharmaceutical removal in municipal wastewater
- 2016
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many pharmaceuticals are found in municipal wastewater effluents due to their persistence in the human body as well as in conventional wastewater treatment processes. This discharge to the environment can lead to adverse effects in aquatic species, such as feminization of male fish. During the past decade, these findings have spawned investigations and research into suitable treatment technologies that could severely limit the discharge. Adsorption onto activated carbon has been identified as one of the two main technologies for implementation of (future) full-scale treatment.Recent research has put a closer focus on adsorption with powdered activated carbon (PAC) than on granular activated carbon (GAC). Studies where both methods are compared in parallel operation are thus still scarce and such evaluation in pilot-scale was therefore a primary objective of this thesis. Furthermore, recirculation of PAC can be used to optimize the treatment regarding the carbon consumption. Such a setup was evaluated as a separate treatment stage to comply with Swedish wastewater convention. Additionally, variation of a set of process parameters was evaluated.During successive operation at three different wastewater treatment plants an overall pharmaceutical removal of 95% could consistently be achieved with both methods. Furthermore, treatment with GAC was sensitive to a degraded effluent quality, which severely reduced the hydraulic capacity. Both treatment methods showed efficient removal of previously highlighted substances, such as carbamazepine and diclofenac, however in general a lower adsorption capacity was observed for GAC. By varying the input of process parameters, such as the continuously added dose or the contact time, during PAC treatment, a responsive change of the pharmaceutical removal could be achieved. The work in this thesis contributes some valuable field experience towards wider application of these treatment technologies in full-scale.
|
|
| 8. |
- Lindroos, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
-
Continuous removal of the model pharmaceutical chloroquine from water using melanin-covered Escherichia coli in a membrane bioreactor
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Journal of Hazardous Materials. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 0304-3894 .- 1873-3336. ; 365, s. 74-80
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Environmental release and accumulation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products is a global concern in view of increased awareness of ecotoxicological effects. Adsorbent properties make the biopolymer melanin an interesting alternative to remove micropollutants from water. Recently, tyrosinase-surface-displaying Escherichia coli was shown to be an interesting self-replicating production system for melanin-covered cells for batch-wise absorption of the model pharmaceutical chloroquine. This work explores the suitability of these melanin-covered E. coli for the continuous removal of pharmaceuticals from wastewater. A continuous-flow membrane bioreactor containing melanized E. coli cells was used for adsorption of chloroquine from the influent until saturation and subsequent regeneration. At a low loading of cells (10 g/L) and high influent concentration of chloroquine (0.1 mM), chloroquine adsorbed until saturation after 26 +/- 2 treated reactor volumes (39 +/- 3 L). The average effluent concentration during the first 20 h was 0.0018 mM, corresponding to 98.2% removal. Up to 140 +/- 6 mg chloroquine bound per gram of cells following mixed homo- and heterogeneous adsorption kinetics. In situ low pH regeneration released all chloroquine without apparent capacity loss over three consecutive cycles. This shows the potential of melanized cells for treatment of conventional wastewater or highly concentrated upstream sources such as hospitals or manufacturing sites.
|
|
| 9. |
- Perez-Zabaleta, Mariel, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
-
Comparison of engineered Escherichia coli AF1000 and BL21 strains for (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate production in fed-batch cultivation
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. - : Springer. - 0175-7598 .- 1432-0614. ; 103:14, s. 5627-5636
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Accumulation of acetate is a limiting factor in recombinant production of (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) by E. coli in high-cell-density processes. To alleviate this limitation, this study investigated two approaches: (i) Deletion of phosphotransacetylase (pta), pyruvate oxidase (poxB) and/or the isocitrate-lyase regulator (iclR), known to decrease acetate formation, on bioreactor cultivations designed to achieve high 3HB concentrations. (ii) Screening of different E. coli strain backgrounds (B, BL21, W, BW25113, MG1655, W3110 and AF1000) for their potential as low acetate-forming, 3HB-producing platforms. Deletion of pta and pta-poxB in the AF1000 strain background was to some extent successful in decreasing acetate formation, but also dramatically increased excretion of pyruvate and did not result in increased 3HB production in high-cell-density fed-batch cultivations. Screening of the different E. coli strains confirmed BL21 as a low acetate forming background. Despite low 3HB titers in low-cell density screening, 3HB-producing BL21 produced 5 times less acetic acid per mol of 3HB, which translated into a 2.3-fold increase in the final 3HB titer and a 3-fold higher volumetric 3HB productivity over 3HB-producing AF1000 strains in nitrogen-limited fed-batch cultivations. Consequently, the BL21 strain achieved the hitherto highest described volumetric productivity of 3HB (1.52 g L-1 h-1) and the highest 3HB concentration (16.3 g L-1) achieved by recombinant E. coli. Screening solely for 3HB titers in low-cell-density batch cultivations would not have identified the potential of this strain, reaffirming the importance of screening with the final production conditions in mind.
|
|
