Filamentous morphology engineering of bacteria by iron metabolism modulation through MagR expression

• DOI: 10.1016/j.synbio.2024.04.009
• Publication Date: 2024-04-15T14:24:47Z
• Authors: Mengke Wei; Chenyang Han; Xiujuan Zhou; Tianyang Tong; Jing Zhang; Xinmiao Ji; Peng Zhang; Yanqi Zhang; Yan Liu; Xin Zhang; Tiantian Cai; Can Xie
• Keywords: Morphology; Segmented filamentous bacteria

The morphology is the consequence of evolution and adaptation. Escherichia coli rod-shaped bacillus with regular dimension about 1.5 μm long 0.5 wide. Many shape-related genes have been identified used in engineering this bacteria. However, little known if specific metabolism metal irons could modulate bacteria morphology. Here study, we discovered filamentous shape change E. cells overexpressing pigeon MagR, a putative magnetoreceptor extremely conserved iron-sulfur protein. Comparative transcriptomic analysis strongly suggested that iron accumulation due to overproduction MagR was key morphological change. This model further validated, also achieved by supplement culture medium or increase uptake such as entB fepA. Our study extended our understanding regulation bacteria, may serves prototype modulating metabolism.