Genetic engineering has led to a vast number of improvements to human life. Through modifying microorganisms we have found new and effective ways to produce a range of products from enzymes to antibodies. As our understanding of genetic engineering has increased, the demand for suitable organisms to act as hosts for both cloning and production purposes has expanded. Vibrio natriegens a fast-growing gram-negative bacterium and recent work has been done to develop the principle tools needed to use V. natriegens as a host for metabolic engineering. In an effort to further investigate the potential of V. natriegens we have developed a plasmid-based expression system compatible in both E. coli and V. natriegens. In order to allow for more effective pathway optimization, we have developed and characterized a mutant library consisting of four different strength T7 promoter mutants. In an attempt to redirect metabolic fluxes responsible for the rapid growth phenotype of V. natriegens to useful chemicals, we have selected the model plant flavonoid pathway responsible for the three-step conversion of phenylpropanoic acid to flavanones as a proof of principle study. In addition to evaluation of heterologous metabolite production, efforts to compare sensitivity and tolerance to a variety of induction and fermentation conditions is also presented. Preliminary studies suggest that V. natriegens exhibits enhanced tolerance to pH sensitivity compared to the model host E. coli.

Evaluation of Vibrio natriegens as a suitable metabolic engineering platform for high-value chemical production

2019 Spring National Meeting

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