Discovery and Characterization of a Thermostable Esterase from an Oil Reservoir Metagenome

With the aim of identifying novel thermostable esterases, comprehensive sequence databases and cloned fosmid libraries of metagenomes derived from an offshore oil reservoir on the Norwegian Continental Shelf were screened for enzyme candidates using both sequence-and function-based screening. From several candidates identified in both approaches, one enzyme discovered by the functional approach was verified as a novel esterase and subjected to a deeper characterization. The enzyme was successfully over-produced in Escherichia coli and was shown to be thermostable up to 90°C, with the highest esterase activity on short-chain ester substrates and with tolerance to solvents and metal ions. The fact that the thermostable enzyme was solely found by functional screening of the oil reservoir metagenomes illustrates the importance of this approach as a complement to purely sequence-based screening, in which the enzyme candidate was not detected. In addition, this example indicates the large potential of deep-sub-surface oil reservoir metagenomes as a source of novel, thermostable enzymes of potential relevance for industrial applications.

Design and construction of microbial cell factories based on systems biology

Environmental sustainability is an increasingly important issue in industry.As an environmentally friendly and sustainable way,constructing microbial cell factories to produce all kinds of valuable products has attracted more and more attention.In the process of constructing microbial cell factories,systems biology plays a crucial role.This review summarizes the recent applications of systems biology in the design and construction of microbial cell factories from four perspectives,including functional genes/enzymes discovery,bottleneck pathways identification,strains tolerance improvement and design and construction of synthetic microbial consortia.Systems biology tools can be employed to identify functional genes/enzymes involved in the biosynthetic pathways of products.These discovered genes are introduced into appropriate chassis strains to build engineering microorganisms capable of producing products.Subsequently,systems biology tools are used to identify bottleneck pathways,improve strains tolerance and guide design and construction of synthetic microbial consortia,resulting in increasing the yield of engineered strains and constructing microbial cell factories successfully.