Less Is More: Toward a Genome-Reduced Bacillus Cell Factory for “Difficult Proteins”

• DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.8b00342
• Publication Date: 2018-12-12T20:50:12Z
• Authors: Rocío Aguilar Suárez; Jörg Stülke; Jan Maarten van Dijl
• Keywords: Synthetic Biology

The availability of complete genome sequences and the definition essential gene sets were fundamental in start engineering era. In a recent study, redundant unnecessary genes systematically deleted from Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis, an industrial production host high-value secreted proteins. This culminated strain PG10, which lacks about 36% genome, thus representing most minimal chassis currently available. Here, we show that this "miniBacillus" has synthetic traits are favorable for producing "difficult-to-produce proteins". As exemplified with different staphylococcal antigens, PG10 overcomes several bottlenecks protein related to secretion process instability product. These findings first time massive reduction can substantially improve secretory by bacterial expression host, underpin high potential genome-engineered strains as future cell factories.