Metabolic pathway engineering of high-salinity-induced overproduction of L-proline improves high-salinity stress tolerance of an ectoine-deficient Halomonas elongata

Abstract

ABSTRACT Halophilic bacteria have adapted to survive in high-salinity environments by accumulating amino acids and their derivatives as organic osmolytes. L-Proline (Pro) is one such osmolyte that is also being used as a feed stimulant in the aquaculture industry. Halomonas elongata OUT30018 is a moderately halophilic bacterium that accumulates ectoine (Ect), but not Pro, as an osmolyte. Due to its ability to utilize diverse biomass-derived carbon and nitrogen sources for growth, H. elongata OUT30018 is used in this work to create a strain that overproduces Pro, which could be used as a sustainable Pro-rich feed additive. To achieve this, we replaced the coding region of H. elongata OUT30018’s Ect biosynthetic operon with the artificial self-cloned proB m1 AC gene cluster that encodes the Pro biosynthetic enzymes: feedback-inhibition insensitive mutant γ-glutamate kinase (γ-GK D118N/D119N ), γ-glutamyl phosphate reductase, and pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase. Additionally, the putA gene, which encodes the key enzyme of Pro catabolism, was deleted from the genome to generate H. elongata HN6. While the Ect-deficient H. elongata KA1 could not grow in minimal media containing more than 4% NaCl, H. elongata HN6 thrived in the medium containing 8% NaCl by accumulating Pro in the cell instead of Ect, reaching a concentration of 353.1 ± 40.5 µmol/g cell fresh weight, comparable to the Ect accumulated in H. elongata OUT30018 in response to salt stress. With its genetic background, H. elongata HN6 has the potential to be developed into a Pro-rich cell factory for upcycling biomass waste into single-cell feed additives, contributing to a more sustainable aquaculture industry. IMPORTANCE We report here the evidence for de novo biosynthesis of Pro to be used as a major osmolyte in an ectoine-deficient Halomonas elongata . Remarkably, the concentration of Pro accumulated in H. elongata HN6 ( ∆ectABC::mCherry-proB m1 AC ∆putA ) is comparable to that of ectoine accumulated in H. elongata OUT30018 in response to high-salinity stress. We also found that among the two γ-glutamate kinase mutants (γ-GK D118N/D119N and γ-GK D154A/E155A ) designed to resemble the two known Escherichia coli feedback-inhibition insensitive γ-GK D107N and γ-GK E143A , the γ-GK D118N/D119N mutant is the only one that became insensitive to feedback inhibition by Pro in H. elongata . As Pro is one of the essential feed additives for the poultry and aquaculture industries, the genetic makeup of the engineered H. elongata HN6 would allow for the sustainable upcycling of high-salinity waste biomass into a Pro-rich single-cell eco-feed.