Indole modifies the central carbon flux in the anaerobic metabolism of Escherichia coli: application to the production of hydrogen and other metabolites

León‐Rodríguez, Antonio De; Caño-Muñiz, Santiago; Liu, Junyan; Summers, David

doi:10.1016/j.nbt.2016.09.005

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Continued supply of glucose into glycolysis but reduced activity in the TCA cycle led to the build-up of glycolytic intermediates, particularly at the junction between glycolysis and the TCA cycle. It was recently reported that indole can increase anaerobic production of hydrogen and ethanol in a non-hns-mutant derivative of E. coli W3110 [62]. This intriguing result suggests that the accumulation of glycolysis products is also seen in anaerobic cultures exposed to indole.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Efficient 3‐Hydroxybutyrate Production by Quiescent Escherichia coli Microbial Cell Factories is Facilitated by Indole‐Induced Proteomic and Metabolomic Changes

Thomson

Shirai

Chiapello

et al. 2018

Biotechnology Journal

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The authors show that quiescent (Q-Cell) Escherichia coli cultures can maintain metabolic activity in the absence of growth for up to 24 h, leading to four times greater specific productivity of a model metabolite, 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB), than a control. Q-cells can be created by using the proton ionophore indole to halt cell division of an hns mutant strain. This uncouples metabolism from cell growth and allows for more efficient use of carbon feedstocks because less metabolic effort is diverted to surplus biomass production. However, the reason for the increased productivity of cells in the quiescent state was previously unknown. In this study, proteome expression patterns between wild-type and Q-cell cultures show that Q-cells overexpress stress response proteins, which prime them to tolerate the metabolic imbalances incurred through indole addition. Metabolomic data reveal the accumulation of acetyl-coenzyme A and phosphoenolpyruvate: excellent starting points for high-value chemical production. We demonstrate the exploitation of these accumulated metabolites by engineering a simple pathway for 3HB production from acetyl-coenzyme A. Quiescent cultures produced half the cell biomass of control cultures lacking indole, but were still able to produce 39.4 g L of 3HB compared to 18.6 g L in the control. Q-cells therefore have great potential as a platform technology for the efficient production of a wide range of commodity and high value chemicals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%