A four-carbon dicarboxylic acid L-malate has recently attracted attention due to its potential applications in the fields of medicine and agriculture. In this study, Escherichia coli W3110 was engineered and optimized for L-malate production via one-step L-malate synthesis pathway. First, deletion of the genes encoding lactate dehydrogenase (ldhA), pyruvate oxidase (poxB), pyruvate formate lyase (pflB), phosphotransacetylase (pta), and acetate kinase A (ackA) in pta-ackA pathway led to accumulate 20.9 g/L pyruvate. Then, overexpression of NADP -dependent malic enzyme C490S mutant in this multi-deletion mutant resulted in the direct conversion of pyruvate into L-malate (3.62 g/L). Next, deletion of the genes responsible for succinate biosynthesis further enhanced L-malate production up to 7.78 g/L. Finally, L-malate production was elevated to 21.65 g/L with the L-malate yield to 0.36 g/g in a 5 L bioreactor by overexpressing the pos5 gene encoding NADH kinase in the engineered E. coli F0931 strain. This study demonstrates the potential utility of one-step pathway for efficient L-malate production. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 656-664. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

L-Malic acid is an important component of a vast array of food additives, antioxidants, disincrustants, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Here, we presented a pathway optimization strategy and a transporter modification approach to reconstruct the L-malic acid biosynthesis pathway and transport system, respectively. First, pyruvate carboxylase (pyc) and malate dehydrogenase (mdh) from Aspergillus flavus and Rhizopus oryzae were combinatorially overexpressed to construct the reductive tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) pathway for L-malic acid biosynthesis. Second, the L-malic acid transporter (Spmae) from Schizosaccharomyces pombe was engineered by removing the ubiquitination motification to enhance the L-malic acid efflux system. Finally, the L-malic acid pathway was optimized by controlling gene expression levels, and the final L-malic acid concentration, yield, and productivity were up to 30.25 g L, 0.30 g g, and 0.32 g L h in the resulting strain W4209 with CaCO as a neutralizing agent, respectively. In addition, these corresponding parameters of pyruvic acid remained at 30.75 g L, 0.31 g g, and 0.32 g L h, respectively. The metabolic engineering strategy used here will be useful for efficient production of L-malic acid and other chemicals.

Valosin-containing protein (VCP)/p97 is an AAA-ATPase that extracts polyubiquitinated substrates from multimeric macromolecular complexes and biological membranes for proteasomal degradation. During p97mediated extraction, the substrate is largely deubiquitinated as it is threaded through the p97 central pore. How p97-extracted substrates are targeted to the proteasome with few or no ubiquitins is unknown. Here, we report that p97-extracted membrane proteins undergo a second round of ubiquitination catalyzed by the cytosolic ubiquitin ligase RNF126. RNF126 interacts with transmembrane-domain-specific chaperone BAG6, which captures p97-liberated substrates. RNF126 depletion in cells diminishes the ubiquitination of extracted membrane proteins, slows down their turnover, and dramatically stabilizes otherwise transient intermediates in the cytosol. We reconstitute the reubiquitination of a p97-extracted, misfolded multispanning membrane protein with purified factors. Our results demonstrate that p97-extracted substrates need to rapidly engage ubiquitin ligase-chaperone pairs that rebuild the ubiquitin signal for proteasome targeting to prevent harmful accumulation of unfolded intermediates.