New insight into acid-resistant enzymes from natural mutations of Escherichia coli Nissle 1917

The probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN), known for its superior acid resistance (AR), serves as a promising chassis for live therapeutics due to the effective colonization capabilities. However, the enzymatic activity regarding AR in EcN remains poorly understood. First, we investigated the AR systems of EcN by measuring cell growth under acidic stress and exploring the relationship of mutations to their corresponding enzymatic activities. As a result, the catalytic activity of inducible decarboxylases of GadB, AdiA and CadA, responsible for metabolizing glutamate, arginine, and lysine, exhibited an average 2-fold increase in EcN compared to the reference strain MG1655. Furthermore, we discovered that the glutamate-dependent AR2 system in EcN was meticulously regulated by specific regulons such as GadW. This study not only revealed the physiology of EcN under acidic conditions, but also highlighted that the mutated core enzymes in the AR system of EcN exhibit improved activities.