Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Shu-Yan Wang, Xin Li, Shu-Guang Wang, Peng-Fei Xia
Summary: Cyanobacteria have the potential to convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into biofuels, chemicals, and food. However, the development of genome-editing tools for cyanobacteria has been slower compared to other microbial chassis. In this study, we successfully adapted base editing using the CRISPR-Cas system for cyanobacteria, enabling precise and efficient genome editing. We demonstrated multiplex base editing in a model cyanobacterium and manipulated the glycogen metabolic pathway to enhance the production of chemicals and food from carbon dioxide. This work represents the first report of base editing in cyanobacteria and provides a paradigm for using CRISPR-Cas systems in bacteria, with the potential to accelerate metabolic engineering and synthetic biology to address global climate change.
METABOLIC ENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Marie Adomako, Dustin Ernst, Ryan Simkovsky, Yi-Yun Chao, Jingtong Wang, Mingxu Fang, Christiane Bouchier, Rocio Lopez-Igual, Didier Mazel, Muriel Gugger, Susan S. Golden
Summary: The genome comparison of S. elongatus strains reveals the early domestication pattern of laboratory strains and the effects of differences in large prophage regions, operons, and even single nucleotides on phenotypes. The study provides a pangenome description of S. elongatus and improves the sequence accuracy of the type strain PCC 6301. A clarification is made regarding a confusion-causing SNP in the circadian response regulator rpaA.
Article
Microbiology
Sadaf Riaz, Ying Jiang, Meng Xiao, Dawei You, Anna Klepacz-Smolka, Faiz Rasul, Maurycy Daroch
Summary: This study optimized the cultivation and natural transformation protocol for the important cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. By adjusting agar concentration and overexpressing catalase gene, the growth of Synechococcus 7942 on solid media was improved. High temperature and phosphate depletion conditions resulted in fewer genome copies and potential to produce fully segregated mutants. Higher antibiotic concentrations improved the selection of homozygous transformants.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Jonathan K. Sakkos, Sergio Hernandez-Ortiz, Katherine W. Osteryoung, Daniel C. Ducat
Summary: Researchers have developed a tool for inducible degradation of target proteins in Synechococcus elongatus, adapting a method using degron tags from the Mesoplasma florum transfer-mRNA (tmRNA) system. This system allows rapid degradation of proteins tagged with the cognate sequence within hours of induction, with implications for carboxysome biogenesis and turnover rate during cell growth. The use of Lon protease control offers an alternative approach for studying essential proteins and protein dynamics in cyanobacteria.
ACS SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Mostafa M. El-Sheekh, Ondrej Prasil, Eithar El-Mohsnawy
Summary: The study found that under iron limitation, the content of chlorophyll-a in thermophilic cyanobacterial cells decreased, while the content of beta-carotene increased, leading to a higher Car/Chl-a ratio, and a decrease in phycobilins content, cell activity, and energy transfer. With iron recovery, cells regained full metabolic activity in a short period.
ACTA PHYSIOLOGIAE PLANTARUM
(2021)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Min-Min Zhuang, Wen Peng, Yang Xu, Xiao-Hui Jia, Ding-Ji Shi, Pei-Min He, Rui Jia
Summary: The study successfully constructed transgenic cyanobacteria expressing vp28 and egfp genes, achieving higher photosynthetic rates by optimizing growth conditions. Feeding shrimp with transgenic cyanobacteria carrying vp28 effectively protected them against WSSV infection, with a high cumulative survival rate of 75%.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYCOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Nina Yang, Yu-An Lin, Carlin A. Merkel, Michelle A. DeMers, Ping-Ping Qu, Eric A. Webb, Fei-Xue Fu, David A. Hutchins
Summary: This study is important for understanding the control of nitrogen-phosphorus-iron co-limitation on nitrogen fixation, as well as its impact on primary productivity and microbial dynamics.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Lin-Rui Tan, Yi-Qi Cao, Jian-Wei Li, Peng-Fei Xia, Shu-Guang Wang
Summary: This study investigated the metabolic mechanism in engineered Synechococcus elongatus during photomixotrophic growth. The introduction of sugar utilization pathways significantly enhanced carbon flux and redirected metabolic pathways. This comprehensive understanding of metabolic mechanism can contribute to the development of more efficient and controllable bioproduction systems.
MICROBIAL CELL FACTORIES
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Mingyi Zhang, Quan Luo, Huili Sun, Jacques Fritze, Guodong Luan, Xuefeng Lu
Summary: This study developed an inducible cyanobacteria cell factory using the ssrADAS-SspB-ClpXPEc system to achieve rapid degradation of target proteins. Additionally, an efficient and stringent inducible gene expression system was obtained, laying the foundation for future dynamic metabolic engineering efforts.
ACS SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Yu Dan, Jiahui Sun, Shanshan Zhang, Yannan Wu, Shaoming Mao, Guodong Luan, Xuefeng Lu
Summary: This study successfully regulated glycogen content in cyanobacteria by enhancing glycogen degradation, leading to increased sucrose production. These findings provide new insights into cyanobacterial glycogen metabolism engineering and will inspire the development of novel metabolic engineering approaches for efficient photosynthetic biosynthesis.
FRONTIERS IN BIOENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Aaron E. Schirmer, Vivek Kumar, Andrew Schook, Eun Joo Song, Michael S. Marshall, Joseph S. Takahashi
Summary: This study investigates the role of Cry1 and Cry2 transcriptional oscillations in the persistence of circadian activity rhythms using a tetracycline trans-activator system. The findings indicate that rhythmic Cry1 expression is crucial for regulating the circadian period, especially within the first 45 days after birth. Additionally, the study demonstrates that overexpression of Cry1 can restore normal behavioral periodicity in animals with disrupted circadian rhythms. These findings provide new insights into the functions of Cryptochrome proteins in circadian rhythmicity and enhance our understanding of the mammalian circadian clock.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Prem Pritam, Aditya P. Sarnaik, Pramod P. Wangikar
Summary: The metabolic engineering of three cyanobacterial strains, including Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, was carried out for mannitol production. By expressing the mtlD gene under the control of different promoters, high mannitol titers were obtained, with the highest titer of 701 & PLUSMN; 15 mg/L achieved by PCC 7942 expressing the P-cpcB300-mtlD module.
BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Long-Sheng Zhao, Chun-Yang Li, Xiu-Lan Chen, Qiang Wang, Yu-Zhong Zhang, Lu-Ning Liu
Summary: Visualization of the photosynthetic complexes in the thylakoid membranes of a cyanobacterium reveals their native architecture and interactions, providing insights into the organization and adaptation of the photosynthetic apparatus under environmental stress. This study sheds light on the molecular mechanisms of efficient light harvesting and energy conversion.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Nora Weber, Michael Hofmeister, Nadja Wunsch, Anja Kohler, Anne-Kristin Kaster, Jon Vollmers, Ben Kachel, Matthias Mack, Tilman Lamparter
Summary: This paper describes the isolation of new filamentous cyanobacteria from marine rockpools and the extraction of DNA from the filaments for genome sequencing. It also demonstrates the use of natural transformation to express superfolder green fluorescent protein and establishes methods for cryopreservation and assessing motility in P. lacuna and Synechocystis sp. CPP 6803.
JOVE-JOURNAL OF VISUALIZED EXPERIMENTS
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Charlotte Roullier, Melania Reggente, Pierrick Gilibert, Ardemis A. Boghossian
Summary: This study focuses on the fabrication of a conductive polypyrrole (PPy) coating for enhancing microbial charge extraction. The PPy electrode shows a sixfold increase in extracted photocurrent for Synechocystis under unmediated conditions compared to bare graphite electrodes. However, Elongatus cells show no substantial difference in photocurrent between the PPy and bare electrodes due to limited electrode adherence and weaker charge interactions. These findings lay the framework for designing customized polymer electrodes for strain-specific charge extraction.
ADVANCED MATERIALS TECHNOLOGIES
(2023)