BackgroundZymomonas mobilis is a natural ethanologen being developed and deployed as an industrial biofuel producer. To date, eight Z. mobilis strains have been completely sequenced and found to contain 2–8 native plasmids. However, systematic verification of predicted Z. mobilis plasmid genes and their contribution to cell fitness has not been hitherto addressed. Moreover, the precise number and identities of plasmids in Z. mobilis model strain ZM4 have been unclear. The lack of functional information about plasmid genes in ZM4 impedes ongoing studies for this model biofuel-producing strain.ResultsIn this study, we determined the complete chromosome and plasmid sequences of ZM4 and its engineered xylose-utilizing derivatives 2032 and 8b. Compared to previously published and revised ZM4 chromosome sequences, the ZM4 chromosome sequence reported here contains 65 nucleotide sequence variations as well as a 2400-bp insertion. Four plasmids were identified in all three strains, with 150 plasmid genes predicted in strain ZM4 and 2032, and 153 plasmid genes predicted in strain 8b due to the insertion of heterologous DNA for expanded substrate utilization. Plasmid genes were then annotated using Blast2GO, InterProScan, and systems biology data analyses, and most genes were found to have apparent orthologs in other organisms or identifiable conserved domains. To verify plasmid gene prediction, RNA-Seq was used to map transcripts and also compare relative gene expression under various growth conditions, including anaerobic and aerobic conditions, or growth in different concentrations of biomass hydrolysates. Overall, plasmid genes were more responsive to varying hydrolysate concentrations than to oxygen availability. Additionally, our results indicated that although all plasmids were present in low copy number (about 1–2 per cell), the copy number of some plasmids varied under specific growth conditions or due to heterologous gene insertion.ConclusionsThe complete genome of ZM4 and two xylose-utilizing derivatives is reported in this study, with an emphasis on identifying and characterizing plasmid genes. Plasmid gene annotation, validation, expression levels at growth conditions of interest, and contribution to host fitness are reported for the first time.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13068-018-1116-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Zymomonas mobilis is an ethanologenic alphaproteobacterium with promise for the industrial conversion of renewable plant biomass into fuels and chemical bioproducts. Limited functional annotation of the Z. mobilis genome is a current barrier to both fundamental studies of Z. mobilis and its development as a synthetic biology chassis. To gain insight, we collected sample-matched multiomics data, including RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), transcription start site (TSS) sequencing (TSS-seq), termination sequencing (term-seq), ribosome profiling, and label-free shotgun proteomic mass spectrometry, across different growth conditions and used these data to improve annotation and assign functional sites in the Z. mobilis genome. Proteomics and ribosome profiling informed revisions of protein-coding genes, which included 44 start codon changes and 42 added proteins. We developed statistical methods for annotating transcript 5′ and 3′ ends, enabling the identification of 3,940 TSSs and their corresponding promoters and 2,091 transcription termination sites, which were distinguished from RNA processing sites by the lack of an adjacent RNA 5′ end. Our results revealed that Z. mobilis σA −35 and −10 promoter elements closely resemble canonical Escherichia coli −35 and −10 elements, with one notable exception: the Z. mobilis −10 element lacks the highly conserved −7 thymine observed in E. coli and other previously characterized σA promoters. The σA promoters of another alphaproteobacterium, Caulobacter crescentus, similarly lack the conservation of −7 thymine in their −10 elements. Our results anchor the development of Z. mobilis as a platform for synthetic biology and establish strategies for empirical genome annotation that can complement purely computational methods. IMPORTANCE Efforts to rationally engineer synthetic pathways in Zymomonas mobilis are impeded by a lack of knowledge and tools for predictable and quantitative programming of gene regulation at the transcriptional, posttranscriptional, and posttranslational levels. With the detailed functional characterization of the Z. mobilis genome presented in this work, we provide crucial knowledge for the development of synthetic genetic parts tailored to Z. mobilis. This information is vital as researchers continue to develop Z. mobilis for synthetic biology applications. Our methods and statistical analyses also provide ways to rapidly advance the understanding of poorly characterized bacteria via empirical data that enable the experimental validation of sequence-based prediction for genome characterization and annotation.

Using an in vitro transcription system with purified RNA polymerase (RNAP) to investigate rRNA synthesis in the photoheterotrophic α-proteobacteriumRhodobacter sphaeroides, we identified a surprising feature of promoters recognized by the major holoenzyme. Transcription fromR. sphaeroidesrRNA promoters was unexpectedly weak, correlating with absence of −7T, the very highly conserved thymine found at the last position in −10 elements of promoters in most bacterial species. Thymine substitutions for adenine at position −7 in the three rRNA promoters strongly increased intrinsic promoter activity, indicating thatR. sphaeroidesRNAP can utilize −7T when present. rRNA promoters were activated by purifiedR. sphaeroidesCarD, a transcription factor found in many bacterial species but not in β- and γ-proteobacteria. Overall, CarD increased the activity of 15 of 16 nativeR. sphaeroidespromoters tested in vitro that lacked −7T, whereas it had no effect on three of the four native promoters that contained −7T. Genome-wide bioinformatic analysis of promoters fromR. sphaeroidesand two other α-proteobacterial species indicated that 30 to 43% contained −7T, whereas 90 to 99% of promoters from non–α-proteobacteria contained −7T. Thus, promoters lacking −7T appear to be widespread in α-proteobacteria and may have evolved away from consensus to enable their coordinated regulation by transcription factors like CarD. We observed a strong reduction inR. sphaeroidesCarD levels when cells enter stationary phase, suggesting that reduced activation by CarD may contribute to inhibition of rRNA transcription when cells enter stationary phase, the stage of growth when bacterial ribosome synthesis declines.