Cells modulate lipid metabolism in order to maintain membrane homeostasis. Here we use a metabolic engineering approach to manipulate the stoichiometry of fatty acid unsaturation, a regulator of cell membrane fluidity, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Unexpectedly, reduced lipid unsaturation triggered cell-cell adhesion (flocculation), a phenomenon characteristic of industrial yeast but uncommon in laboratory strains. We find that ER lipid saturation sensors induce expression of FLO1 - encoding a cell wall polysaccharide binding protein - independently of its canonical regulator. In wild-type cells, Flo1p-dependent flocculation occurs under oxygen-limited growth, which reduces unsaturated lipid synthesis and thus serves as the environmental trigger for flocculation. Transcriptional analysis shows that FLO1 is one of the most highly induced genes in response to changes in lipid unsaturation, and that the set of membrane fluidity-sensitive genes is globally activated as part of the cell's long-term response to hypoxia during fermentation. Our results show how the lipid homeostasis machinery of budding yeast is adapted to carry out a broad response to an environmental stimulus important in biotechnology.
The CRISPR/Cas9 technology has greatly improved genome editing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae over recent years. However, several current CRISPR/Cas9 systems suffer from work-intensive cloning procedures and/or the requirement of co-transforming target cells with multiple system components simultaneously which can reduce the effectivity of such applications. Here, we present a new set of all-in-one CRISPR/Cas9 vectors that combine unique benefits of different already existent systems in order to further expand the technology’s design possibilities. Our vectors mediate constitutive gRNA expression whereas Cas9 expression is either driven from a constitutive or an inducible promoter. The introduction of desired gRNA targeting sequences into our inducible single gRNA vector relies just on in vivo homologous recombination-mediated assembly of overlapping single-stranded oligonucleotides, thus reducing efforts of plasmid cloning to an absolute minimum. By employing the inducible system, yeast cells can be easily preloaded with plasmids encoding for a functional CRISPR/Cas9 system, thereby chronologically separating the cloning procedure from the genome editing step. Gene knockouts could be achieved with high efficiency and effectivity by simply transforming preloaded cells with a selectable disruption cassette without the need of co-introducing any CRISPR/Cas9 system component. We also show the feasibility of efficient gene knockouts even when multiple gene copies were present such as in non-haploid strain backgrounds as well as the simultaneous deletion of two different genes in a haploid genetic background by using a multiplex variant of our inducible vector. The versatile applicability of our inducible vector system was further demonstrated by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mating type switching of yeast.
A broad variety of biomolecules is industrially produced in bacteria and yeasts. These microbial expression hosts can be optimized through genomic engineering using CRISPR tools. Here, we designed and characterized such a modular genome editing system based on the Cas12a-like RNA guided nuclease MAD7 in E. coli. Our system enables the efficient generation of SNPs or gene deletions and can directly be used with donor DNA from benchtop DNA assembly to increase throughput. We combined multiple edits to engineer an E. coli strain with reduced overflow metabolism and increased plasmid yield, highlighting the versatility and industrial applicability of our approach.
A broad variety of biomolecules is industrially produced in bacteria and yeasts. These microbial expression hosts can be optimized through genetic engineering using CRISPR tools. Here, we designed and characterized such a modular genome editing system based on the Cas12a-like RNA-guided nuclease MAD7 in Escherichia coli. This system enables the efficient generation of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or gene deletions and can directly be used with donor DNA from benchtop DNA assembly to increase throughput. We combined multiple edits to engineer an E. coli strain with reduced overflow metabolism and increased plasmid yield, highlighting the versatility and industrial applicability of this approach.
cylindrical LPS from S. minnesota. Considering the role of TRPV4 in mechanosensation we hypothesized that TRPV4 senses the disturbances induced by insertion of LPS in the plasma membrane. By measuring membrane fluidity using fluorescence probes, we found that conically-shaped LPS from E. coli, but not cylindrical LPS from S. minnesota, causes a membrane phase shift towards gel-like state. This suggests that LPS structural differences are important in its ability to induce mechanical alterations in the membrane. We also found that LPS activates native TRPV4 in the human bronchial epithelial cell line 16HBE. Acute stimulation of TRPV4 in monolayer cultures of 16HBE cells induced a rapid increase of the transepithelial electrical resistance. Additionally, LPS-mediated TRPV4 activation increased colocalization of ZO-1 and Occludin in the plasma membrane. Altogether, these data suggest that LPS induces a TRPV4-dependent reorganization of tight junction proteins, leading to an increase in barrier function. We propose that TRPV4 participates in the orchestration of the innate immune response to the challenge with bacterial endotoxins.
The most widely used strategy for selection of yeast transformed with episomal plasmids comprises the use of auxotrophic yeast strains in combination with vectors containing complementing prototrophic marker genes. Another approach uses heterologous genes or cassettes which, if present in the vector, render the otherwise sensitive yeast strain resistant to antibiotics. In addition, auto-selection systems for Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been developed that eliminate the requirement for synthetic drop-out media or the use of antibiotics for transformation selection and subsequent plasmid maintenance in expression cultures. Here we describe a combination of host strain and vector system introducing a novel concept of auto-selection systems that allows for easy and robust propagation of host cells deleted in essential genes in supplemented media before being transformed with rescuing plasmids. With that, our approach is favorable over commonly used selection strategies and has major advantage over other auto-selection systems. Our approach complements the auto-selection toolbox already available for S. cerevisiae, thus contributing a novel system that enables the use of complex peptone-based media for protein expression and metabolic engineering approaches. We therefore expect that this new strategy will be of general interest to the yeast research community in academia and industry.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.