Anchoring the ethylene-forming enzyme to photosystem-related proteins to improve ethylene production in engineered Synechocystis PCC 6803

Abstract

Ethylene production in engineered cyanobacteria offers a sustainable alternative to the traditional production from fossil resources. Protein fusions and anchoring strategies are promising routes to augment the stability of recombinant proteins. Here we attempted to anchor the ethylene-forming enzyme (Efe) to several photosystem-related proteins (including D1, PetF, and PsaE) in order to improve the ethylene producing capability in engineered cells of Synechocystis PCC 6803. Generated strains harboring fused Efe with D1 or PetF showed respectively 1.6- and 1.5-fold increase in ethylene production compared to a control strain harboring only Efe. Additionally, strains co-expressing a non-fused Efe with PsaE or PetF showed respectively 3.5- and 3.1-fold increase in ethylene production compared to the control strain. This work demonstrates the feasibility to incorporate (anchor or co-express) target enzyme(s) with specific photosystem components for facilitating highly efficient production of bulk chemicals in engineered cyanobacteria.