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Enhancement of ε-poly-l-lysine production by overexpressing the ammonium transporter gene in Streptomyces albulus PD-1

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Abstract

The antibacterial polymer ɛ-poly-l-lysine (ε-PL) has been widely used as a safe food preservative. As the synthesis of ε-PL requires a rich supply of nitrogen, the efficiency of nitrogen translocation and utilization is extremely important. The objective of this study was to improve the production of ε-PL by overexpressing the ammonium transporter gene amtB in Streptomyces albulus PD-1. Using the recombinant bacteria, the optimum carbon-to-nitrogen ratio in the synthesis stage of fermentation increased from 3 to 4.71, compared with that obtained using the wild-type strain, and the utilization efficiency of ammonium was improved too. Ultimately, the production of ε-PL increased from 22.7 to 35.7 g/L upon fed-batch cultivation in a 5 L bioreactor. Determination of the expression of the genes and enzymes associated with ammonium metabolism and ε-PL synthesis revealed that the overexpression of amtB in S. albulus PD-1 enhanced ε-PL biosynthesis by increasing the activity of the corresponding metabolic pathways. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on enhancing ε-PL production by overexpression of the amtB gene in an ε-PL-producing strain.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFD0400400), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21476112 and 51703095), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 51229018), the State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering (No. KL15-09 to J. Zhou), and the Key Projects in the National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period (No. 2015BAD15B04), the Jiangsu Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Bio-Manufacture (No. XTB1804).

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  1. Delei Xu and Haiqing Yao contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Food Science and Light Industry, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Delei Xu, Haiqing Yao, Changhong Cao, Sha Li, Zheng Xu, Xiaohai Feng & Hong Xu

  2. Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Delei Xu, Haiqing Yao, Changhong Cao, Sha Li, Zheng Xu, Xiaohai Feng & Hong Xu

  3. School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Zhaoxian Xu

  4. State Key Laboratory of Bio-Organic and Natural Products Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Jiahai Zhou

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  1. Delei Xu
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Xu, D., Yao, H., Cao, C. et al. Enhancement of ε-poly-l-lysine production by overexpressing the ammonium transporter gene in Streptomyces albulus PD-1. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 41, 1337–1345 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-018-1961-9

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