Cited by 13Microbial Metabolic Engineering and BioproductionAlgal biology and biofuel productionLipid metabolism and biosynthesis

Membrane-Located Expression of Thioesterase From Acinetobacter baylyi Enhances Free Fatty Acid Production With Decreased Toxicity in Synechocystis sp. PCC6803

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Afrin, Shajia, Khan, Md. Rezaul Islam, Zhang, Weiyi, Wang, Yushu, Zhang, Weiwen, He, Lin, Ma, Gang·2018·Frontiers in Microbiology

Abstract

It has been previously reported that photosynthetic production of extracellular free fatty acids (FFAs) in cyanobacteria was realized by thioesterases (TesA) mediated hydrolysis of fatty acyl-ACP in cytosol and excretion of the free fatty acid outside of the cell. However, two major issues related to the genetically modified strains need to be addressed before the scale-up commercial application becomes possible: namely, the toxicity of free fatty acids, and the diversity of carbon lengths of fatty acids that could mimic the fossil fuel. To address those issues, we hypothesized that generating FFAs near membrane could facilitate rapid excretion of the free fatty acid outside of the cell and thus decrease toxicity caused by intracellular FFAs in the cytosolic expression of thioesterase. To realize this, we localised a leaderless thioesterase (AcTesA) from Acinetobacter baylyi on the cytosolic side of the inner membrane of Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 using a membrane scaffolding system. The engineered strain with AcTesA on its membrane (mAcT) produced extracellular FFAs up to 171.9 ± 13.22 mg·L-1 compared with 40.24 ± 10.94 and 1.904 ± 0.158 mg·L-1 in the cytosol-expressed AcTesA (AcT) and wild-type (WT) strains, respectively. Moreover, the mAcT strain generated around 1.5 and 1.9 times less reactive oxygen species than AcT and WT, respectively. Approximately 78% of total FFAs were secreted with an average rate of 1 mg·L−1·h−1, which was higher than 0.44 mg·L−1·h−1 reported previously. In the case of mAcT strain, 60% of total secreted FFAs was monounsaturated (C18:1) which is the preferable biodiesel component. Therefore, the engineered mAcT strain shows enhanced FFAs production with less toxicity which is highly desirable for biodiesel production.

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Afrin, S., Khan, M. R. I., Zhang, W., Wang, Y., Zhang, W., He, L., & Ma, G.
Affiliations
  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University (CN)
  • Tianjin University (CN)
Corresponding author
  • He, Lin
  • Ma, Gang
Venue
Frontiers in Microbiology
Published
2018-11-27
Volume
9
Pages
2842-2842
ISSN
1664-302X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2903309087
Cited by
13
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1
FWCI
0.27
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Frontiers in Microbiology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (31770100, 81421061, 2012BAI01B09, 31671504)
  • China Scholarship Council
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
  • Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Lipid metabolism and biosynthesis
Keywords
thioesterase, Acinetobacter baylyi, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, free fatty acid production, reactive oxygen species, monounsaturated fatty acids, biodiesel, cyanobacterial photosynthesis

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