Phosphatases and phosphate affect the formation of glucose from pentoses in Escherichia coli

Metabolically engineered Escherichia coli MEC143 with deletions of the ptsG, manZ, glk, pfkA, and zwf genes converts pentoses such as arabinose and xylose into glucose, with the dephosphorylation of glucose-6-phosphate serving as the final step. To determine which phosphatase mediates this conversion, we examined glucose formation from pentoses in strains containing knockouts of six different phosphatases singly and in combination. Deletions of single phosphatases and combinations of multiple phosphatases did not eliminate the accumulation of glucose from xylose or arabinose. Overexpression of one phosphatase, haloacid dehalogenase-like phosphatase 12 coded by the ybiV gene, increased glucose yield significantly from 0.26 to 0.30 g/g (xylose) and from 0.32 to 0.35 g/g (arabinose). Growing cells under phosphate-limited steady-state conditions increased the glucose yield to 0.39 g glucose/g xylose, but did not affect glucose yield from arabinose (0.31 g/g). No single phosphatase is exclusively responsible for the conversion of glucose-6-phosphate to glucose in E. coli MEC143. Phosphate-limited conditions are indeed able to enhance glucose formation in some cases, with this effect likely influenced by the different phosphate demands when E. coli metabolizes different carbon sources.