The genetic basis for the adaptation of E. coli to sugar synthesis from CO₂.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the evolution of a new metabolic capability in full mechanistic detail is challenging, as causative mutations may be masked by non-essential "hitchhiking" mutations accumulated during the evolutionary trajectory. We have previously used adaptive laboratory evolution of a rationally engineered ancestor to generate an Escherichia coli strain able to utilize CO₂ fixation for sugar synthesis. Here, we reveal the genetic basis underlying this metabolic transition. Five mutations are sufficient to enable robust growth when a non-native Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle provides all the sugar-derived metabolic building blocks. These mutations are found either in enzymes that affect the efflux of intermediates from the autocatalytic CO₂ fixation cycle toward biomass (

SUBMITTER: Herz E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5700066 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature