Research
Comparative transcriptional analysis of Bacillus subtilis cells overproducing either secreted proteins, lipoproteins or membrane proteins
- † Equal contributors
1 Department of Molecular Genetics, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
2 Kluyver Center for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation, Delft/Groningen, The Netherlands
3 Present address: Molecular Microbiology, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG, Groningen, The Netherlands
4 Institute for Life Science & Technology, Hanze University Groningen of Applied Sciences, Zernikeplein 7, 9747 AS, Groningen, The Netherlands
Microbial Cell Factories 2012, 11:66 doi:10.1186/1475-2859-11-66
Published: 24 May 2012Abstract
Background
Bacillus subtilis is a favorable host for the production of industrially relevant proteins because of its capacity of secreting proteins into the medium to high levels, its GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status, its genetic accessibility and its capacity to grow in large fermentations. However, production of heterologous proteins still faces limitations.
Results
This study aimed at the identification of bottlenecks in secretory protein production by analyzing the response of B. subtilis at the transcriptome level to overproduction of eight secretory proteins of endogenous and heterologous origin and with different subcellular or extracellular destination: secreted proteins (NprE and XynA of B. subtilis, Usp45 of Lactococcus lactis, TEM-1 β-lactamase of Escherichia coli), membrane proteins (LmrA of L. lactis and XylP of Lactobacillus pentosus) and lipoproteins (MntA and YcdH of B. subtilis). Responses specific for proteins with a common localization as well as more general stress responses were observed. The latter include upregulation of genes encoding intracellular stress proteins (groES/EL, CtsR regulated genes). Specific responses include upregulation of the liaIHGFSR operon under Usp45 and TEM-1 β-lactamase overproduction; cssRS, htrA and htrB under all secreted proteins overproduction; sigW and SigW-regulated genes mainly under membrane proteins overproduction; and ykrL (encoding an HtpX homologue) specifically under membrane proteins overproduction.
Conclusions
The results give better insights into B. subtilis responses to protein overproduction stress and provide potential targets for genetic engineering in order to further improve B. subtilis as a protein production host.
