Synthetic Whole-Cell Biodevices for Targeted Degradation of Antibiotics

Peng-Fei Xia,Qian Li,Yong-Su Jin,Lin-Rui Tan,Shu-Guang Wang,Miao-Miao Liu

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-21350-9

Peng-Fei Xia, Qian Li + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21350-9

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Abstract

Synthetic biology enables infinite possibilities in biotechnology via employing genetic modules. However, not many researches have explored the potentials of synthetic biology in environmental bioprocesses. In this study, we introduced a genetic module harboring the codon-optimized tetracycline degrading gene, tetX.co, into the model host, Escherichia coli, and generated a prototypal whole-cell biodevice for the degradation of a target antibiotic. Our results suggested that E. coli with the tetX.co-module driven by either the PJ23119 or PBAD promoters conferred resistance up to 50 μg/mL of tetracycline and degrades over 95% of tetracycline within 24 h. The detoxification ability of tetX was further verified in conditioned media by typical E. coli K-12 and B strains as well as Shewanella oneidensis. Our strategy demonstrated the feasibility of introducing genetic modules into model hosts to enable environmental functions, and this work will inspire more environmental innovations through synthetic biological devices.

Highlights

Advances in DNA reading and writing techniques, as well as developments in genetic circuits, have enabled synthetic biological designs in microorganisms for precise purposes[1,2,3]
Compared with the fields where synthetic biology and metabolic engineering have prospered, similar scenarios can be developed in environmental biotechnology
To construct the genetic modules, the tetX gene from the transposon Tn4351 in B. fragilis was codon optimized for better expression in BW25113 and the resulting tetX.co was fused to the pBAD backbone plasmids led by either a constitutive (PJ23119) or an inducible promoter (PBAD) with different strengths (Fig. 1A and B), resulting in pTc and pTi, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Advances in DNA reading and writing techniques, as well as developments in genetic circuits, have enabled synthetic biological designs in microorganisms for precise purposes[1,2,3]. We designed and introduced a genetic module capable of degrading antibiotics into E. coli, to examine whether a model microbial host could be engineered to a whole-cell biodevice for environmental purposes.

Results

Conclusion