Functions of poly-gamma-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) degradation genes in γ-PGA synthesis and cell morphology maintenance

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2014;98(14):6397-407. doi: 10.1007/s00253-014-5729-0. Epub 2014 Apr 26.

Abstract

Poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) is an important biopolymer with greatly potential in industrial and medical applications. In the present study, we constructed a metabolically engineered glutamate-independent Bacillus amyloliquefaciens LL3 strain with considerable γ-PGA production, which was carried out by single, double, and triple markerless deletions of three degradation genes pgdS, ggt, and cwlO. The highest γ-PGA production (7.12 g/L) was obtained from the pgdS and cwlO double-deletion strain NK-pc, which was 93 % higher than that of wild-type LL3 strain (3.69 g/L). The triple-gene-deletion strain NK-pgc showed a 28 % decrease in γ-PGA production, leading to a yield of 2.69 g/L. Furthermore, the cell morphologies of the mutant strains were also characterized. The cell length of cwlO deletion strains NK-c and NK-pc was shorter than that of the wild-type strain, while the ggt deletion strains NK-g, NK-pg, NK-gc, and NK-pgc showed longer cell lengths. This is the first report concerning the markerless deletion of γ-PGA degradation genes to improve γ-PGA production in a glutamate-independent strain and the first observation that γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (encoded by ggt) could be involved in the inhibition of cell elongation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacillus / cytology*
  • Bacillus / genetics
  • Bacillus / metabolism*
  • Cell Wall / metabolism*
  • Gene Deletion
  • Genes, Bacterial*
  • Metabolic Engineering
  • Polyglutamic Acid / analogs & derivatives*
  • Polyglutamic Acid / metabolism
  • gamma-Glutamyltransferase / genetics
  • gamma-Glutamyltransferase / metabolism*

Substances

  • poly(gamma-glutamic acid)
  • Polyglutamic Acid
  • gamma-Glutamyltransferase