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Pseudomonas putida has gained much interest among metabolic engineers as a workhorse for producing valuable natural products. While a few gene knockout tools for P. putida have been reported, integration of heterologous genes into the chromosome of P. putida, an essential strategy to develop stable industrial strains producing heterologous bioproducts, requires development of a more efficient method. Current methods rely on time-consuming homologous recombination techniques and transposon-mediated random insertions. Here we report a RecET recombineering system for markerless integration of heterologous genes into the P. putida chromosome. The efficiency and capacity of the recombineering system were first demonstrated by knocking out various genetic loci on the P. putida chromosome with knockout lengths widely spanning 0.6-101.7 kb. The RecET recombineering system developed here allowed successful integration of biosynthetic gene clusters for four proof-of-concept bioproducts, including protein, polyketide, isoprenoid, and amino acid derivative, into the target genetic locus of P. putida chromosome. The markerless recombineering system was completed by combining Cre/lox system and developing efficient plasmid curing systems, generating final strains free of antibiotic markers and plasmids. This markerless recombineering system for efficient gene knockout and integration will expedite metabolic engineering of P. putida, a bacterial host strain of increasing academic and industrial interest., (Copyright © 2018 International Metabolic Engineering Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Rhodosporidium toruloides DMKU3-TK16 (TK16), a basidiomycetous yeast isolated in Thailand, can produce a large amount of oil corresponding to approximately 70 % of its dry cell weight. However, lack of a sufficient and efficient transformation method makes further genetic manipulation of this organism difficult. We here developed a new transformation system for R. toruloides using a lithium acetate method with the Sh ble gene as a selective marker under the control of the R. toruloides ATCC 10657 GPD1 promoter. A linear DNA fragment containing the Sh ble gene expression cassette was integrated into the genome, and its integration was confirmed by colony PCR and Southern blot. Then, we further optimized the parameters affecting the transformation efficiency, such as the amount of linear DNA, the growth phase, the incubation time in the transformation mixture, the heat shock treatment temperature, the addition of DMSO and carrier DNA, and the recovery incubation time. With the developed method, the transformation efficiency of approximately 25 transformants/μg DNA was achieved. Compared with the initial trial, transformation efficiency was enhanced 417-fold. We further demonstrated the heterologous production of EGFP in TK16 by microscopic observation and immunoblot analysis, and use the technique to disrupt the endogenous URA3 gene. The newly developed method is thus simple and time saving, making it useful for efficient introduction of an exogenous gene into R. toruloides strains. Accordingly, this new practical approach should facilitate the molecular manipulation, such as target gene introduction and deletion, of TK16 and other R. toruloides strains as a major source of biodiesel.

Metabolic engineering strategies often employ multi-copy episomal vectors to overexpress genes. However, chromosome-based overexpression is preferred as it avoids the use of selective pressure and reduces metabolic burden on the cell. We have constructed a series of template plasmids for λ Red-mediated Escherichia coli genome engineering. The template plasmids allow construction of genome integrating cassettes that can be used to integrate single copies of DNA sequences at predetermined sites or replace promoter regions. The constructed cassettes provide flexibility in terms of expression levels achieved and antibiotics used for selection, as well as allowing construction of marker-free strains. The modular design of the template plasmids allows replacement of genetic parts to construct new templates. Gene integration and promoter replacement using the template plasmids are illustrated., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Pseudonocardia species are emerging as important microorganisms of global concern with unique and increasingly significant ecological roles and represent a prominent source of bioactive natural products, but genetic engineering of these organisms for biotechnological applications is greatly hindered due to the limitation of efficient genetic manipulation tools. In this regard, we report here the establishment of an efficient genetic manipulation system for a newly isolated strain, Pseudonocardia alni Shahu, based on plasmid conjugal transfer from Escherichia coli to Pseudonocardia. Conjugants were yielded upon determining the optimal ratio between the donor and recipient cells, and designed genome modifications were efficiently accomplished, including exogenous gene integration based on an integrative plasmid and chromosomal stretch removal by homologous recombination using a suicidal non-replicating vector. Collectively, this work has made the P. alni Shahu accessible for genetic engineering, and provided an important reference for developing genetic manipulation methods in other rare actinomycetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli using plasmids is problematic, which is addressed by developing a toolbox for genomic engineering of E. coli. This toolbox includes the attP site-based integration vectors and the attB site-based template vectors, equipped with mutant loxP sites (i.e., LE* and RE*). The former vectors facilitate integration of passenger genes into attB sites while the latter allows creation of new attB sites. Consequently, the inserted vector backbone is flanked by LE* and RE* sites and can be rescued by Cre. Based on this approach, the biosynthetic pathway of poly(3-hydroxybutyric acid) was first built in E. coli. By scoring the observable phenotype of integrants, the result revealed that the efficiency of gene integration could reach 100%. In addition, reconstruction of the n-butanol-synthesizing pathway in E. coli resulted in a plasmid-free producer strain. As a consequence, the producer strain was able to stably overproduce n-butanol (3.7g/L) from glucose (20g/L). Finally, exoglucanase was overexpressed in E. coli that carried multiple genomic copies of the celY gene. Overall, it indicates a promise of our method for cycling improvement of E. coli. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]