Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, University of Campania L. Vanvitelli, via de Crecchio 7, 80138, Napoli, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2020 Aug 6;10(1):13200. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-70027-9.
The capsular polysaccharide obtained from Escherichia coli K4 is a glycosaminoglycan-like molecule, similar to chondroitin sulphate, that has established applications in the biomedical field. Recent efforts focused on the development of strategies to increase K4 polysaccharide fermentation titers up to technologically attractive levels, but an aspect that has not been investigated so far, is how changes in the molecular machinery that produces this biopolymer affect its molecular weight. In this work, we took advantage of recombinant E. coli K4 strains that overproduce capsular polysaccharide, to study whether the inferred pathway modifications also influenced the size of the produced polymer. Fed-batch fermentations were performed up to the 22 L scale, in potentially industrially applicable conditions, and a purification protocol that allows in particular the recovery of high molecular weight unsulphated chondroitin, was developed next. This approach allowed to determine the molecular weight of the purified polysaccharide, demonstrating that kfoF overexpression increased polymer size up to 133 kDa. Higher polysaccharide titers and size were also correlated to increased concentrations of UDP-GlcA and decreased concentrations of UDP-GalNAc during growth. These results are interesting also in view of novel potential applications of higher molecular weight chondroitin and chondroitin sulphate in the biomedical field.
从大肠杆菌 K4 获得的荚膜多糖是一种类似糖胺聚糖的分子,类似于硫酸软骨素,已在生物医学领域确立了应用。最近的研究重点是开发策略,将 K4 多糖发酵的产量提高到具有技术吸引力的水平,但到目前为止,尚未研究的一个方面是,产生这种生物聚合物的分子机制的变化如何影响其分子量。在这项工作中,我们利用过表达荚膜多糖的重组大肠杆菌 K4 菌株,研究了推断的途径修饰是否也会影响所产生聚合物的大小。在潜在的工业应用条件下,在 22 L 规模上进行了分批补料发酵,并开发了一种纯化方案,特别是可以回收高分子量未硫酸化的软骨素。这种方法允许确定纯化多糖的分子量,证明 kfoF 的过表达将聚合物的大小增加到 133 kDa。在生长过程中,较高的多糖产量和大小也与 UDP-GlcA 的浓度增加和 UDP-GalNAc 的浓度降低相关。鉴于更高分子量的软骨素和硫酸软骨素在生物医学领域的新的潜在应用,这些结果也很有趣。