Development of a Propionibacterium-Escherichia coli shuttle vector for metabolic engineering of Propionibacterium jensenii, an efficient producer of propionic acid.

Propionic acid (PA) is an important chemical building block and is widely applied for organic synthesis, food, feedstuff, and pharmaceuticals. To date, the strains that can efficiently produce PA have included Propionibacterium thoenii, P. freudenreichii, and P. acidipropionici. In this report, we show that P. jensenii ATCC 4868 is also able to produce PA in much higher yields than the previously reported strains. To further improve the production capacity, a P. jensenii-Escherichia coli shuttle vector was developed for the metabolic engineering of P. jensenii. Specifically, a 6.9-kb endogenous plasmid, pZGX01, was isolated from P. acidipropionici ATCC 4875 and sequenced. Since the sequencing analysis indicated that pZGX01 could encode 11 proteins, the transcriptional levels of the corresponding genes were also investigated. Then, a P. jensenii-Escherichia coli shuttle vector was constructed using the pZGX01 plasmid, the E. coli pUC18 plasmid, and a chloramphenicol resistance gene. Interestingly, not only could the developed shuttle vector be transformed into P. jensenii ATCC 4868 and 4870, but it also could be transformed into freudenreichii ATCC 6207 subspecies of P. freudenreichii. Finally, the glycerol dehydrogenase gene (gldA) from Klebsiella pneumoniae was expressed in P. jensenii ATCC 4868 with the constructed shuttle vector. In a 3-liter batch culture, the PA production by the engineered P. jensenii ATCC 4868 strain reached 28.23 ± 1.0 g/liter, which was 26.07% higher than that produced by the wild-type strain (22.06 ± 1.2 g/liter). This result indicated that the constructed vector can be used a useful tool for metabolic engineering of P. jensenii.