A Novel Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 11802 has Distinct Genomic and Metabolomic Characteristics Compared to its Neighbor PCC 11801

Abstract

Cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic prokaryotes, are attractive hosts for biotechnological applications. It is envisaged that future biorefineries will deploy engineered cyanobacteria for the conversion of carbon dioxide to useful chemicals via light-driven, endergonic reactions. Fast-growing, genetically amenable, and stress-tolerant cyanobacteria are desirable as chassis for such applications. The recently reported strains such as Synechococcus elongatus UTEX 2973 and PCC 11801 hold promise, but additional strains may be needed for the ongoing efforts of metabolic engineering. Here, we report a novel, fast-growing, and naturally transformable cyanobacterium, S. elongatus PCC 11802, that shares 97% genome identity with its closest neighbor S. elongatus PCC 11801. The new isolate has a doubling time of 2.8 h at 1% CO2, 1000 µmole photons.m−2.s−1 and grows faster under high CO2 and temperature compared to PCC 11801 thus making it an attractive host for outdoor cultivations and eventual applications in the biorefinery. Furthermore, S. elongatus PCC 11802 shows higher levels of key intermediate metabolites suggesting that this strain might be better suited for achieving high metabolic flux in engineered pathways. Importantly, metabolite profiles suggest that the key enzymes of the Calvin cycle are not repressed under elevated CO2 in the new isolate, unlike its closest neighbor.

Dynamic Inventory of Intermediate Metabolites of Cyanobacteria in a Diurnal Cycle

“…Here we present an LC-MS/MS-based, large-scale metabolite profiling of the fast-growing cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 11801 (henceforth S. elongatus PCC 11801) in a diurnal sine LD cycle. S. elongatus PCC 11801 is a promising candidate for biotechnological applications owing to its faster growth, tolerance to high light and temperature, and genetic amenability (Jaiswal et al, 2018b(Jaiswal et al, , 2020bSengupta et al, 2020aSengupta et al, , 2020b. We find dramatic intra-day changes in the inventory of sugar bisphosphates, sugar phosphates, nucleotides, sugar nucleotides, organic acids, amino acids, and hitherto unexplored g-glutamyl dipeptides.…”

“…A protocol was developed to grow S. elongatus PCC 11801 with NaH 13 CO3 obtain metabolite extract that shows dominant 13 C monoisotopic peaks and no 12 C monoisotopic peaks for all metabolites (Jaiswal et al, 2020b). A modified form of BG-11 medium that does not contain any organic carbon source such as sodium carbonate, citric acid, and ferric ammonium citrate (BG11-C -) was used to prepare 13 C-enriched metabolite extracts of PCC 11801.…”

Evaluation and Comparison of the Efficiency of Transcription Terminators in Different Cyanobacterial Species

“…The pDUOTK1-L1 vector contains the broad host range replicative origin RSF1010, which has been shown to be functional in a wide diversity of prokaryotic species, including cyanobacteria from all five subsections ( Mermet-Bouvier et al, 1993 ; Stucken et al, 2012 ; Bishé et al, 2019 ). Thus, pDUOTK1-L1 could help to make terminator characterization more accessible, as promising new strains are discovered ( Włodarczyk et al, 2019 ; Jaiswal et al, 2020 ; Nies et al, 2020 ). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to compare the efficiencies of terminators between two different cyanobacterial species.…”

Light-Driven Biosynthesis of myo-Inositol Directly From CO2 in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

“…Similarly, other fast-growing cyanobacteria like S. elongatus PCC 11802 and Synechococcus sp. PCC 11901 were identified recently, offering more candidates as chassis for MI production in the future (Jaiswal et al, 2020;Wlodarczyk et al, 2020).…”