Project description:Background: Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising renewable feedstock for the microbial production of fuels. To release the major fermentable sugars such as glucose and xylose, pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass feedstock are needed. During this process, many toxic compounds are produced or introduced which subsequently inhibit microbial growth and eventually the production rate and yield. Acetate is one of the major inhibitors liberated from hemicelluloses during dilute acid pretreatment. An understanding of the toxic effects of acetate on the fermentation microorganism is critical to improving biofuel yields in the process. In addition, the efficient utilization of mixed sugars of glucose and xylose in the presence of hydrolysate inhibitors is crucial for economic biofuel production. Results: We have observed previously that some pretreatment inhibitors affect growth and performance in Zymomonas mobilis 8b differently when different sugars (e.g. glucose or xylose) are used as substrate. To investigate this phenomenon at the cellular level, microarray technology was used to investigate the acetate stress responses of Z. mobilis 8b when using single carbon sources of glucose or xylose, and mixed sugars of glucose and xylose. We designed a microarray based on the most up-to-date genome annotation for both coding sequences and intergenic regions. In the presence of acetate, 8b still can utilize all the glucose (though xylose utilization was inhibited) with similar ethanol yield although the growth, final biomass, and ethanol production rate were reduced. The presence of acetate caused genes related to biosynthesis, flagellar system, and glycolysis to be downregulated, and genes related to stress responses and energy metabolism to be upregulated. Our result indicates that Z. mobilis utilized different mechanism for xylose utilization compared to that of glucose, with even more dramatic results than those caused by treatment of the culture with the inhibitor acetate. Our study also suggests that redox imbalance caused by stressful conditions may trigger a metabolic reaction that leads to the accumulation of toxic intermediates such as xylitol, but Z. mobilis appears to be capable of managing its carbon and energy metabolism through the control of individual reactions to overcome the inhibition caused by stressful conditions. Several target gene candidates based on transcriptomic result have been selected for genetic manipulation and a TonB-dependent receptor knockout mutant was confirmed to have advantage on acetate tolerance. Conclusions: We have gained insights into the molecular responses of the model ethanologenic bacterium Z. mobilis to the inhibitor acetate when grown in different sugar sources. These insights will facilitate future metabolic modeling studies and help further strain metabolic engineering efforts for better xylose utilization and acetate tolerance. Two series of microarray studies using total RNA extracted from Zymomonas mobilis subsp mobilis 8b (an xylose-utilizing recombinant) were carried out to investigate the effect of carbon source and acetate on Z. mobilis. One study compared the acetate effect in either glucose or xylose at exponential phase and another study investigated the acetate effect in mixed sugar of glucose and xylose at three growth phases of exponential, transition, and stationary. Tthree biological replicates were used for each condition.

Project description:Background Zymomonas mobilis ZM4 is a capable ethanologenic bacterium with high ethanol productivity and ethanol tolerance. Previous studies indicated that several stress-related proteins and changes in the ZM4 membrane lipid composition may contribute to ethanol tolerance. However, the molecular mechanisms of its ethanol stress response have not been elucidated fully. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, ethanol stress responses were investigated using systems biology approaches. Medium supplementation with an initial 47 g/L (6% v/v) ethanol reduced Z. mobilis ZM4 glucose consumption, growth rate and ethanol productivity compared to that of untreated controls. A proteomic analysis of early exponential growth identified about one thousand proteins, or approximately 55% of the predicted ZM4 proteome. Proteins related to metabolism and stress response such as chaperones and key regulators were more abundant in the early ethanol stress condition. Transcriptomic studies indicated that the response of ZM4 to ethanol is dynamic, complex and involves many genes from all the different functional categories. Most down-regulated genes were related to translation and ribosome biogenesis, while the ethanol-upregulated genes were mostly related to cellular processes and metabolism. Transcriptomic data were used to update Z. mobilis ZM4 operon models. Furthermore, correlations among the transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolic data were examined. Among significantly expressed genes or proteins, we observe higher correlation coefficients when fold-change values are higher. Conclusions Our study has provided insights into the responses of Z. mobilis to ethanol stress through an integrated “omics” approach for the first time. This systems biology study elucidated key Z. mobilis ZM4 metabolites, genes and proteins that form the foundation of its distinctive physiology and its multifaceted response to ethanol stress. A sixteen array study using total RNA recovered from wild-type cultures of Zymomonas mobilis subsp mobilis ZM4 at different time points of 6, 10, 13.5, and 26h post-inoculation with 6% (v/v) treatment compred to that of control without ethanol supplementation. Two biological replicates for treatment and control condition.

Dataset Information

Zymomonas mobilis subsp. mobilis strain:8b

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