A second-generation Bacillus cell factory for rare inositol production

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Metabolic Engineering
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Rare inositol stereoisomers possess health benefits.
• Scyllo-inositol (SI) shows therapeutic potential for Alzheimer disease.
• Efficient production of SI is crucial for its therapeutic application.

Purpose of the Study:

• To improve a previously developed Bacillus subtilis cell factory for enhanced scyllo-inositol (SI) production.
• To explore further optimizations and potential applications of the engineered cell factory.

Main Methods:

• Metabolic engineering of Bacillus subtilis by deleting non-essential genes related to myo-inositol (MI) and SI metabolism.
• Overexpression of key enzymes, IolG and IolW, to enhance SI production pathway.
• Fermentation of 10 g/L myo-inositol (MI) to assess SI conversion efficiency and yield.

Main Results:

• The engineered Bacillus subtilis cell factory efficiently converted myo-inositol (MI) into scyllo-inositol (SI).
• A yield of 10 g/L SI was achieved from 10 g/L MI within 48 hours of cultivation.
• The study demonstrated successful deletion of "useless" genes and overexpression of key enzymes.

Conclusions:

• The improved Bacillus subtilis cell factory provides an efficient method for scyllo-inositol (SI) production.
• This engineered strain holds promise for the large-scale synthesis of SI as a therapeutic agent for Alzheimer disease.
• Further improvements and applications of this cell factory are discussed.