Enhanced synthesis of alginate oligosaccharides in NK-01 by overexpressing MreB.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of cytoskeleton protein MreB on bacterial cell morphology and the synthesis of alginate oligosaccharides (AO) and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) by NK-01. To overexpress the gene, an expression vector encoding MreB-GFP fusion protein was constructed. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed that cells expressing MreB were longer than the wild ones, which agrees with MreB's relationship with the synthesis of peptidoglycan. Cells expressing the MreB-GFP fusion protein emitted green fluorescence under a fluorescence microscope, suggesting that MreB was functionally expressed in strain NK-01. Under a confocal laser scanning microscope, MreB was observed as located around the cell membrane. Furthermore, the recombinant strain could synthesize 0.961 g/L AO, which was 5.86-fold higher than wild-type strain. Through the medium optimization test, we finally selected the addition of 20 g/L glucose as the optimal glycogen addition for AO fermentation based on a high AO yield and high substrate transformation efficiency. The results indicated that overexpression of MreB affected the cell morphology, the activity of AO polymerase, and the efficiency of AO secretion. However, the synthesis of PHA for recombinant strain was slightly reduced. The results suggested that the overexpression of this cytoskeleton protein affected the yield of specific intracellular and extracellular products.