Altering metabolic flux at a key branchpoint in metabolism has commonly been accomplished through gene knockouts or by modulating gene expression. An alternative approach to direct metabolic flux preferentially toward a product is decreasing the activity of a key enzyme through protein engineering. In Escherichia coli, pyruvate can accumulate from glucose when carbon flux through the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex is suppressed. Based on this principle, 16 chromosomally expressed AceE variants were constructed in E. coli C and compared for growth rate and pyruvate accumulation using glucose as the sole carbon source. To prevent conversion of pyruvate to other products, the strains also contained deletions in two nonessential pathways: lactate dehydrogenase (ldhA) and pyruvate oxidase (poxB). The effect of deleting phosphoenolpyruvate synthase (ppsA) on pyruvate assimilation was also examined. The best pyruvate-accumulating strains were examined in controlled batch and continuous processes. In a nitrogen-limited chemostat process at steady-state growth rates of 0.15 – 0.28 h−1, an engineered strain expressing the AceE[H106V] variant accumulated pyruvate at a yield of 0.59-0.66 g pyruvate/g glucose with a specific productivity of 0.78 – 0.92 g pyruvate/g cells*h. These results provide proof-of-concept that pyruvate dehydrogenase complex variants can effectively shift carbon flux away from central carbon metabolism to allow pyruvate accumulation. This approach serves as an additional tool to modify central metabolism and direct metabolic flux to a product and can potentially be applied to other key metabolic enzymes. This metabolic engineering strategy could be paired with existing technologies to optimize metabolism and create industrially relevant and economically feasible processes.

Altering central metabolic flux through the use of pyruvate dehydrogenase variants in Escherichia coli

ACS Fall 2021

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