CRISPR interference-guided modulation of glucose pathways to boost aconitic acid production in Escherichia coli

One major mission of microbial breeding is high-level production of desired metabolites. Overproduction of intermediate metabolites in core pathways is challenging as it may impair cell growth and viability.

Here we report that aconitic acid, an intermediate metabolite in tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, can be overproduced by an engineered CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) system in Escherichia coli. This CRISPRi system was designed to simultaneously target pyruvate kinase (PK) and isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), two enzymes in glycolytic pathway and TCA cycle, respectively. Reverse transcription and quantitative PCR and enzyme activity assays showed that this engineered CRISPRi system significantly repressed the genes encoding IDH and PK, resulting in simultaneous reduction in the activities of IDH and PK. In shake-flask and fed-batch cultivation, this CRISPRi strain produced 60-fold (362.80 ± 22.05 mg/L) and 15-fold (623.80 ± 20.05 mg/L) of aconitic acid relative to the control strain, respectively. In addition, this two-target CRISPRi strain maintained low levels of acetate and lactate, two problematic byproducts.

This work demonstrates that CRISPRi system can improve aconitic acid production by coordinating glycolysis and TCA cycle. This study provides insights for high-level production of the intermediate metabolites in central pathways.