A novel C-terminal degron identified in bacterial aldehyde decarbonylases using directed evolution

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Electronic versions

DOI

  • Yilan Liu
    University of Toronto
  • Jinjin Chen
    University of Toronto
  • Anna N Khusnutdinova
    Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry University of Toronto Toronto CanadaUniversity of Toronto
  • Kevin Correia
    University of Toronto
  • Patrick Diep
    University of Toronto
  • Khorcheska A Batyrova
    University of Toronto
  • Kayla Nemr
    University of Toronto
  • Robert Flick
    University of Toronto
  • Peter Stogios
    University of Toronto
  • Alexander F Yakunin
    University of Toronto
  • Radhakrishnan Mahadevan
    University of Toronto

BACKGROUND: Aldehyde decarbonylases (ADs), which convert acyl aldehydes into alkanes, supply promising solution for producing alkanes from renewable feedstock. However the instability of ADs impedes their further application. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the degradation mechanism of ADs and engineer it towards high stability.

RESULTS: Here, we describe the discovery of a degradation tag (degron) in the AD from marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus marinus using error-prone PCR-based directed evolution system. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that this C-terminal degron is common in bacterial ADs and identified a conserved C-terminal motif, RMSAYGLAAA, representing the AD degron (ADcon). Furthermore, we demonstrated that the ATP-dependent proteases ClpAP and Lon are involved in the degradation of AD-tagged proteins in E. coli, thereby limiting alkane production. Deletion or modification of the degron motif increased alkane production in vivo.

CONCLUSION: This work revealed the presence of a novel degron in bacterial ADs responsible for its instability. The in vivo experiments proved eliminating or modifying the degron could stabilize AD, thereby producing higher titers of alkanes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)114
JournalBiotechnology for Biofuels
Volume13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Jun 2020
Externally publishedYes
View graph of relations