Research and Strategies of Flavins-mediated Extracellular Electron Transfer

doi:10.13523/j.cb.2104035

China Biotechnology

2021, Vol. 41

Issue (10): 89-99 DOI: 10.13523/j.cb.2104035

Research and Strategies of Flavins-mediated Extracellular Electron Transfer

LI Yuan-yuan,LI Yan,CAO Ying-xiu(

),SONG Hao

School of Chemical Engineering and Technology,Tianjin University,Frontier Science Center for Synthetic Biology, Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education),Tianjin 300072,China

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Abstract

Extracellular electron transfer is the process that electroactive microorganisms (EAMs) acquire energy from the environment by extending respiratory chains to external electron acceptors. Organism Shewanella oneidensis is widely used as a model to study emerging bioelectrochemical technologies, including microbial fuel cell (MFC), microbial electrosynthesis, as well as pollutant degradation in bioremediation. A previous study reported that almost all electrons generated by S. oneidensis were transmitted into acceptors relying on flavins, including flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and riboflavin (RF). What’s more, flavins-mediated extracellular electron transfer is the rate-limiting step in the process of electron transmission. However, flavins secreted by wild-type S. oneidensis are negligible, and the engineering modifications for S. oneidensis are limited, both of which seriously hinder the electrons transfer process, and enable the main bottleneck of restricting the electrons transmission. In this study, the regulatory factors of flavin synthesis were systematically demonstrated from the perspective of flavin biosynthesis and transcriptional regulation relying on the mechanisms of flavins-mediated electron transfer in S. oneidensis. Besides, the strategies utilizing metabolic engineering, synthetic biology and modification of electrode materials for improving flavins-mediated electron transfer in recent years were summarized. Further, it can be proposed that in the future, systematic research and expression tools can be utilized to accelerate the flavins-mediated extracellular electron transfer in EAMs.

Key words： S.oneidensis Riboflavin Cytochrome Extracellular electron transfer Metabolic engineering

Received: 21 April 2021 Published: 08 November 2021

ZTFLH:

Q819

Corresponding Authors: Ying-xiu CAO E-mail: caoyingxiu@tju.edu.cn

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	Yuan-yuan LI
	Yan LI
	Ying-xiu CAO
	Hao SONG

Cite this article:

LI Yuan-yuan,LI Yan,CAO Ying-xiu,SONG Hao. Research and Strategies of Flavins-mediated Extracellular Electron Transfer. China Biotechnology, 2021, 41(10): 89-99.

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https://manu60.magtech.com.cn/biotech/10.13523/j.cb.2104035 OR https://manu60.magtech.com.cn/biotech/Y2021/V41/I10/89

Fig.1 Mechanisms of extracellular electron transfer in S. oneidensis ET: electron transfer; OM: outer membrane; IM: inner membrane

Fig. 2 The role of flavins in extracellular electron transfer (a) Extracellular RF and FMN (b) RF and FMN serve as the electron shuttles to mediate the electron transfer (c) RF and FMN serve as the cytochrome-bound cofactors to mediate the electron transfer

Fig.3 The interaction between flavins and cytochromes in the van der Waals surface of the proteins (a) The docking of flavins to OmcA with the binding sites in heme 5 and heme 7 (b) The docking of flavins to MtrC with the binding sites in heme 1, heme 7, heme 9, and heme 4. The hemes colored in red and the flavins are colored in green

Fig. 4 Structure of flavins

Fig. 5 De novo synthesis pathway of flavins in S. oneidensis G6P, Glucose-6-phosphate; F6P, Fructose-6-phosphate; FBP, Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate; GAP, Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate; 1,3-2PG, 1,3-diphosphoglycerate; PGA, 3-phosphoglycerate; 2PG, diphosphoglycerate; PEP, Phosphoenol-pyruvate; PYR, Pyruvate; Ru5P, Ribulose-5-phosphate; R5P, Ribose-5-phosphate; PS, phosphoserine; Ser, serine; Gly, glycine; PRPP, 5-phospho-α-D-ribosyl-1-pyrophosphate; PRA,5-phospho-α-D-ribosylamin; GAR, Glyceramide nucleotide enzyme; IMP, inosine 5'-mono-phosphate; XMP, xanthosine 5'-mono phosphate; GMP, guanosine 5'-mono-phosphate; GDP, guanosine 5'-di-phosphate; GTP, guanosine 5'-tri-phosphate; DARPP, 2,5-diamino-6-ribosyla-mino-4(3H)-pyrimidinone-5'-phosphate; ARPP, 5-amino-6-(5'-phosphoribosylamino)uracil; ArPP, 5-amino-6-(5'-phosphor-ibitylamino)uracil; DHPB, 3,4-dihydroxy-2-butanone 4-phosphate; DRL, 6,7-dimethyl-8-ribityl-lumazine; FMN, flavin mononucleotide; FAD, flavin adenine dinucleotide

Fig.6 Engineering strategies for enhancing flavin synthesis (a) The endogenous overexpression of rib operon and Mtr-reduced biosynthesis gene cluster in S. oneidensis (b) The optimization of promoters with different expression strengths for improving flavins productivity (c) The exogenous overexpression of rib operon from B. subtilis

Fig.7 Construction of microbial consortium for improved electricity generation (a) A synthetic microbial consortium containing exoelectrogen S. oneidensis MR-1 and RF producing strain B. subtilis (b) A synthetic fermenter-exoelectrogen (E. coli-S. oneidensis) microbial consortium (c) Three-species microbial consortium for power generation consisted of engineered E. coli, B. subtilis, and S. oneidensis


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