Controlling Citrate Synthase Expression by CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing for n-Butanol Production in Escherichia coli

Min Ji Heo, Hwi Min Jung, Jaeyong Um, Sang Woo Lee, Min Kyu Oh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Genome editing using CRISPR/Cas9 was successfully demonstrated in Esherichia coli to effectively produce n-butanol in a defined medium under microaerobic condition. The butanol synthetic pathway genes including those encoding oxygen-tolerant alcohol dehydrogenase were overexpressed in metabolically engineered E. coli, resulting in 0.82 g/L butanol production. To increase butanol production, carbon flux from acetyl-CoA to citric acid cycle should be redirected to acetoacetyl-CoA. For this purpose, the 5′-untranslated region sequence of gltA encoding citrate synthase was designed using an expression prediction program, UTR designer, and modified using the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing method to reduce its expression level. E. coli strains with decreased citrate synthase expression produced more butanol and the citrate synthase activity was correlated with butanol production. These results demonstrate that redistributing carbon flux using genome editing is an efficient engineering tool for metabolite overproduction.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)182-189
Number of pages8
JournalACS Synthetic Biology
Volume6
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017 Feb 17

Keywords

  • 5′-untranslated region
  • CRISPR/Cas9
  • Escherichia coli
  • genome editing
  • n-butanol

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Controlling Citrate Synthase Expression by CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing for n-Butanol Production in Escherichia coli'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this