{"title":"The construction and optimization of engineered yeast chassis for efficient biosynthesis of 8‐hydroxygeraniol","authors":"Yu Zhang, Mengdi Yuan, Xinxin Wu, Qiuhui Zhang, Yuzhu Wang, Liming Zheng, Tsan-Yu Chiu, Huiming Zhang, Lei Lan, Feng Wang, Ying Liao, Xuemei Gong, Shirui Yan, Yun Wang, Yue Shen, Xian Fu","doi":"10.1002/mlf2.12099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mlf2.12099","url":null,"abstract":"Microbial production of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs) provides a sustainable and eco‐friendly means to obtain compounds with high pharmaceutical values. However, efficient biosynthesis of MIAs in heterologous microorganisms is hindered due to low supply of key precursors such as geraniol and its derivative 8‐hydroxygeraniol catalyzed by geraniol 8‐hydroxylase (G8H). In this study, we developed a facile evolution platform to screen strains with improved yield of geraniol by using the SCRaMbLE system embedded in the Sc2.0 synthetic yeast and confirmed the causal role of relevant genomic targets. Through genome mining, we identified several G8H enzymes that perform much better than the commonly used CrG8H for 8‐hydroxygeraniol production in vivo. We further showed that the N‐terminus of these G8H enzymes plays an important role in cellular activity by swapping experiments. Finally, the combination of the engineered chassis, optimized biosynthesis pathway, and utilization of G8H led to the final strain with more than 30‐fold improvement in producing 8‐hydroxygeraniol compared with the starting strain. Overall, this study will provide insights into the construction and optimization of yeast cells for efficient biosynthesis of 8‐hydroxygeraniol and its derivatives.","PeriodicalId":508070,"journal":{"name":"mLife","volume":"69 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139157228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhi‐Yan Du, Wajid W. Bhat, Eric Poliner, Sean Johnson, Conor Bertucci, Eva Farre, B. Hamberger
{"title":"Engineering Nannochloropsis oceanica for the production of diterpenoid compounds","authors":"Zhi‐Yan Du, Wajid W. Bhat, Eric Poliner, Sean Johnson, Conor Bertucci, Eva Farre, B. Hamberger","doi":"10.1002/mlf2.12097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mlf2.12097","url":null,"abstract":"Photosynthetic microalgae like Nannochloropsis hold enormous potential as sustainable, light‐driven biofactories for the production of high‐value natural products such as terpenoids. Nannochloropsis oceanica is distinguished as a particularly robust host with extensive genomic and transgenic resources available. Its capacity to grow in wastewater, brackish, and sea waters, coupled with advances in microalgal metabolic engineering, genome editing, and synthetic biology, provides an excellent opportunity. In the present work, we demonstrate how N. oceanica can be engineered to produce the diterpene casbene—an important intermediate in the biosynthesis of pharmacologically relevant macrocyclic diterpenoids. Casbene accumulated after stably expressing and targeting the casbene synthase from Daphne genkwa (DgTPS1) to the algal chloroplast. The engineered strains yielded production titers of up to 0.12 mg g−1 total dry cell weight (DCW) casbene. Heterologous overexpression and chloroplast targeting of two upstream rate‐limiting enzymes in the 2‐C‐methyl‐d‐erythritol 4‐phosphate pathway, Coleus forskohlii 1‐deoxy‐d‐xylulose‐5‐phosphate synthase and geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase genes, further enhanced the yield of casbene to a titer up to 1.80 mg g−1 DCW. The results presented here form a basis for further development and production of complex plant diterpenoids in microalgae.","PeriodicalId":508070,"journal":{"name":"mLife","volume":"12 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139157015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuhao Fu, Qingyuan Dou, K. Smalla, Yu Wang, Timothy A. Johnson, K. K. Brandt, Zhi Mei, Maoyuan Liao, S. Hashsham, Andreas Schäffer, H. Smidt, Tong Zhang, Hui Li, Robert D. Stedtfeld, Hongjie Sheng, Benli Chai, Marko Virta, Xin Jiang, Fang Wang, Yong-Guan Zhu, J. Tiedje
{"title":"Gut microbiota research nexus: One Health relationship between human, animal, and environmental resistomes","authors":"Yuhao Fu, Qingyuan Dou, K. Smalla, Yu Wang, Timothy A. Johnson, K. K. Brandt, Zhi Mei, Maoyuan Liao, S. Hashsham, Andreas Schäffer, H. Smidt, Tong Zhang, Hui Li, Robert D. Stedtfeld, Hongjie Sheng, Benli Chai, Marko Virta, Xin Jiang, Fang Wang, Yong-Guan Zhu, J. Tiedje","doi":"10.1002/mlf2.12101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mlf2.12101","url":null,"abstract":"The emergence and rapid spread of antimicrobial resistance is of global public health concern. The gut microbiota harboring diverse commensal and opportunistic bacteria that can acquire resistance via horizontal and vertical gene transfers is considered an important reservoir and sink of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). In this review, we describe the reservoirs of gut ARGs and their dynamics in both animals and humans, use the One Health perspective to track the transmission of ARG‐containing bacteria between humans, animals, and the environment, and assess the impact of antimicrobial resistance on human health and socioeconomic development. The gut resistome can evolve in an environment subject to various selective pressures, including antibiotic administration and environmental and lifestyle factors (e.g., diet, age, gender, and living conditions), and interventions through probiotics. Strategies to reduce the abundance of clinically relevant antibiotic‐resistant bacteria and their resistance determinants in various environmental niches are needed to ensure the mitigation of acquired antibiotic resistance. With the help of effective measures taken at the national, local, personal, and intestinal management, it will also result in preventing or minimizing the spread of infectious diseases. This review aims to improve our understanding of the correlations between intestinal microbiota and antimicrobial resistance and provide a basis for the development of management strategies to mitigate the antimicrobial resistance crisis.","PeriodicalId":508070,"journal":{"name":"mLife","volume":"7 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139156591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jiayin Zhou, Wei Qin, Xinda Lu, Yunfeng Yang, David Stahl, N. Jiao, Jizhong Zhou, Jihua Liu, Qichao Tu
{"title":"The diversity and ecological significance of microbial traits potentially involved in B12 biosynthesis in the global ocean","authors":"Jiayin Zhou, Wei Qin, Xinda Lu, Yunfeng Yang, David Stahl, N. Jiao, Jizhong Zhou, Jihua Liu, Qichao Tu","doi":"10.1002/mlf2.12095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mlf2.12095","url":null,"abstract":"Cobalamin (B12), an essential nutrient and growth cofactor for many living organisms on Earth, can be fully synthesized only by selected prokaryotes in nature. Therefore, microbial communities related to B12 biosynthesis could serve as an example subsystem to disentangle the underlying ecological mechanisms balancing the function and taxonomic make‐up of complex functional assemblages. By anchoring microbial traits potentially involved in B12 biosynthesis, we depict the biogeographic patterns of B12 biosynthesis genes and the taxa harboring them in the global ocean, despite the limitations of detecting de novo B12 synthesizers via metagenomes alone. Both the taxonomic and functional composition of B12 biosynthesis genes were strongly shaped by depth, differentiating the epipelagic zones from the mesopelagic layers. Functional genes related to B12 biosynthesis were relatively stably distributed across different oceans, but the taxa harboring them varied considerably, showing clear functional redundancy among microbial systems. Microbial taxa carrying B12 biosynthesis genes in the surface water were influenced by environmental factors such as temperature, oxygen, and nitrate. However, the composition of functional genes was only weakly associated with these environmental factors. Null model analyses demonstrated that determinism governed the variations in B12 biosynthesis genes, whereas a higher degree of stochasticity was associated with taxonomic variations. Significant associations were observed between the chlorophyll a concentration and B12 biosynthesis, confirming its importance in primary production in the global ocean. The results of this study reveal an essential ecological mechanism governing the assembly of microbes in nature: the environment selects for function rather than taxonomy; functional redundancy underlies stochastic community assembly.","PeriodicalId":508070,"journal":{"name":"mLife","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139156320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Y. Qiu, Kangcheng Zhang, Yunfeng Zhao, Yexin Zhao, Bianbian Wang, Yi Wang, Tangqing He, Xinyu Xu, Tongshuo Bai, Yi Zhang, Shuijin Hu
{"title":"Climate warming suppresses abundant soil fungal taxa and reduces soil carbon efflux in a semi‐arid grassland","authors":"Y. Qiu, Kangcheng Zhang, Yunfeng Zhao, Yexin Zhao, Bianbian Wang, Yi Wang, Tangqing He, Xinyu Xu, Tongshuo Bai, Yi Zhang, Shuijin Hu","doi":"10.1002/mlf2.12098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mlf2.12098","url":null,"abstract":"Soil microorganisms critically affect the ecosystem carbon (C) balance and C‐climate feedback by directly controlling organic C decomposition and indirectly regulating nutrient availability for plant C fixation. However, the effects of climate change drivers such as warming, precipitation change on soil microbial communities, and C dynamics remain poorly understood. Using a long‐term field warming and precipitation manipulation in a semi‐arid grassland on the Loess Plateau and a complementary incubation experiment, here we show that warming and rainfall reduction differentially affect the abundance and composition of bacteria and fungi, and soil C efflux. Warming significantly reduced the abundance of fungi but not bacteria, increasing the relative dominance of bacteria in the soil microbial community. In particular, warming shifted the community composition of abundant fungi in favor of oligotrophic Capnodiales and Hypocreales over potential saprotroph Archaeorhizomycetales. Also, precipitation reduction increased soil total microbial biomass but did not significantly affect the abundance or diversity of bacteria. Furthermore, the community composition of abundant, but not rare, soil fungi was significantly correlated with soil CO2 efflux. Our findings suggest that alterations in the fungal community composition, in response to changes in soil C and moisture, dominate the microbial responses to climate change and thus control soil C dynamics in semi‐arid grasslands.","PeriodicalId":508070,"journal":{"name":"mLife","volume":"23 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139190103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unveiling the hidden world of microorganisms and their impact on the Earth's ecosystems","authors":"Yunfeng Yang, Jizhong Zhou","doi":"10.1002/mlf2.12100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mlf2.12100","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":508070,"journal":{"name":"mLife","volume":"34 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139192370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}