Engineering Escherichia coli to bind to cyanobacteria.

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Synthetic Biology
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Microbial adhesion is crucial for various biological processes.
• Engineering microorganisms for specific binding capabilities remains a challenge.
• Cyanobacteria, like Microcystis aeruginosa, interact with other microbes in aquatic environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for mediating microbial adhesion between Escherichia coli and cyanobacteria.
• To engineer E. coli to display cyanobacterial lectins on its surface for targeted binding.
• To validate the binding efficacy using Microcystis aeruginosa and its lectin, microvirin (Mvn).

Main Methods:

• Heterologous expression of cyanobacterial lectins on the surface of E. coli.
• Fusion of the microvirin (Mvn) coding sequence to the ice nucleation protein NC (INPNC) gene.
• Surface display of the INPNC::Mvn fusion protein in E. coli.
• Quantification of E. coli binding to M. aeruginosa.
• Development of a computational model to simulate binding parameters.

Main Results:

• E. coli cells successfully displayed the INPNC::Mvn fusion protein.
• Engineered E. coli demonstrated significant binding to Microcystis aeruginosa.
• The average number of E. coli cells bound per cyanobacterial cell increased eightfold.
• Computational modeling provided insights into the binding reaction parameters.

Conclusions:

• Surface display of lectins on E. coli is an effective strategy for mediating inter-organismal binding.
• This engineered microbial adhesion system shows promise for applications in biotechnology and environmental science.
• This study presents the first report of lectin-mediated binding between two organisms in liquid culture.