Methanol, a one-carbon compound, can be utilized by a variety of bacteria and other organisms as carbon and energy source and is regarded as a promising substrate for biotechnological production. In this study, a strain of non-methylotrophic Corynebacterium glutamicum, which was able to produce the polyamide building block cadaverine as non-native product, was engineered for co-utilization of methanol. Expression of the gene encoding NAD+-dependent methanol dehydrogenase (Mdh) from the natural methylotroph Bacillus methanolicus increased methanol oxidation. Deletion of the endogenous aldehyde dehydrogenase genes ald and fadH prevented methanol oxidation to carbon dioxide and formaldehyde detoxification via the linear formaldehyde dissimilation pathway. Heterologous expression of genes for the key enzymes hexulose-6-phosphate synthase and 6-phospho-3-hexuloisomerase of the ribulose monophosphate (RuMP) pathway in this strain restored growth in the presence of methanol or formaldehyde, which suggested efficient formaldehyde detoxification involving RuMP key enzymes. While growth with methanol as sole carbon source was not observed, the fate of 13C-methanol added as co-substrate to sugars was followed and the isotopologue distribution indicated incorporation into central metabolites and in vivo activity of the RuMP pathway. In addition, 13C-label from methanol was traced to the secreted product cadaverine. Thus, this synthetic biology approach led to a C. glutamicum strain that converted the non-natural carbon substrate methanol at least partially to the non-native product cadaverine.

BackgroundMethanol is present in most ecosystems and may also occur in industrial applications, e.g. as an impurity of carbon sources such as technical glycerol. Methanol often inhibits growth of bacteria, thus, methanol tolerance may limit fermentative production processes.ResultsThe methanol tolerance of the amino acid producing soil bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum was improved by experimental evolution in the presence of methanol. The resulting strain Tol1 exhibited significantly increased growth rates in the presence of up to 1 M methanol. However, neither transcriptional changes nor increased enzyme activities of the linear methanol oxidation pathway were observed, which was in accordance with the finding that tolerance to the downstream metabolites formaldehyde and formate was not improved. Genome sequence analysis of strain Tol1 revealed two point mutations potentially relevant to enhanced methanol tolerance: one leading to the amino acid exchange A165T of O-acetylhomoserine sulfhydrolase MetY and the other leading to shortened CoA transferase Cat (Q342*). Introduction of either mutation into the genome of C. glutamicum wild type increased methanol tolerance and introduction of both mutations into C. glutamicum was sufficient to achieve methanol tolerance almost indistinguishable from that of strain Tol1.ConclusionThe methanol tolerance of C. glutamicum can be increased by two point mutations leading to amino acid exchange of O-acetylhomoserine sulfhydrolase MetY and shortened CoA transferase Cat. Introduction of these mutations into producer strains may be helpful when using carbon sources containing methanol as component or impurity.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12866-015-0558-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Corynebacterium glutamicum, a Gram-positive soil bacterium belonging to the actinomycetes, is able to degrade formaldehyde but the enzyme(s) involved in this detoxification process were not known. Acetaldehyde dehydrogenase Ald, which is essential for ethanol utilization, and FadH, characterized here as NAD-linked mycothiol-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase, were shown to be responsible for formaldehyde oxidation since a mutant lacking ald and fadH could not oxidize formaldehyde resulting in the inability to grow when formaldehyde was added to the medium. Moreover, C. glutamicum DaldDfadH did not grow with vanillate, a carbon source giving rise to intracellular formaldehyde. FadH from C. glutamicum was purified from recombinant Escherichia coli and shown to be active as a homotetramer. Mycothiol-dependent formaldehyde oxidation revealed K m values of 0.6 mM for mycothiol and 4.3 mM for formaldehyde and a V max of 7.7 U mg "1. FadH from C. glutamicum also possesses zinc-dependent, but mycothiolindependent alcohol dehydrogenase activity with a preference for short chain primary alcohols such as ethanol (K m 5330 mM, V max 59.6 U mg "1 ), 1-propanol (K m 5150 mM, V max 55 U mg "1 ) and 1-butanol (K m 550 mM, V max 50.8 U mg "1). Formaldehyde detoxification system by Ald and mycothiol-dependent FadH is essential for tolerance of C. glutamicum to external stress by free formaldehyde in its habitat and for growth with natural substrates like vanillate, which are metabolized with concomitant release of formaldehyde.

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