Screening of a novel strong promoter by RNA sequencing and its application to H2 production in a hyperthermophilic archaeon

Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2015 May;99(9):4085-92. doi: 10.1007/s00253-015-6444-1. Epub 2015 Feb 18.

Abstract

A strong promoter increases transcription of the genes of interest and enhances the production of various valuable substances. For a hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus onnurineus NA1, which can produce H2 from carbon monoxide oxidation, we searched for a novel endogenous strong promoter by transcriptome analysis using high-throughput RNA sequencing. Based on the relative transcript abundance, we selected one promoter to encode a hypothetical gene, of which homologs were found only in several Thermococcales strains. This promoter, P TN0510 , was introduced into the front of CO-responsible hydrogenase gene cluster encoding a carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH), a hydrogenase, and a Na(+)/H(+) antiporter. In the resulting mutant strain, KS0510, transcription and translation level of the gene cluster increased by 4- to 14-folds and 1.5- to 1.9-folds, respectively, in comparison with those of the wild-type strain. Additionally, H2 production rate of KS0510 mutant was 4.8-fold higher than that of the wild-type strain. The P TN0510 was identified to be much stronger than the well-known two strong promoters, gdh and slp promoters from Thermococcus strains, through RT-qPCR and Western blotting analyses and kinetics of H2 production. In this study, we demonstrated that the RNA-seq approach is a good strategy to mine novel strong promoters of use to a Thermococcus strain when developed as a biotechnologically promising strain to produce valuable products such as enzymes and metabolites through metabolic engineering.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aldehyde Oxidoreductases / genetics
  • Aldehyde Oxidoreductases / metabolism
  • Blotting, Western
  • Carbon Monoxide / metabolism
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression*
  • Genetic Testing
  • Hydrogen / metabolism*
  • Hydrogenase / genetics
  • Hydrogenase / metabolism
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Multienzyme Complexes / genetics
  • Multienzyme Complexes / metabolism
  • Multigene Family
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic*
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA
  • Sodium-Hydrogen Exchangers / genetics
  • Sodium-Hydrogen Exchangers / metabolism
  • Thermococcus / genetics*
  • Thermococcus / metabolism*

Substances

  • Multienzyme Complexes
  • Sodium-Hydrogen Exchangers
  • Carbon Monoxide
  • Hydrogen
  • Hydrogenase
  • Aldehyde Oxidoreductases
  • carbon monoxide dehydrogenase

Associated data

  • GEO/GSE64036