Vol 53, No 9 (2017)

At present, ¹³C-MFA is a primary method for quantitatively characterizing intracellular carbon fluxes in cells in vivo under steady-state conditions. The method has been successfully used to investigate both the fundamental characteristics of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell metabolism and to improve producer strains for more than twenty years. This publication is the last in a set of reviews that describe various aspects of the method. Here, the authors highlight recent achievements that involved using ¹³C-MFA to elucidate bacterial metabolism. Analyses of well-characterized bacterial model strains revealed that central metabolism robustness is provided by a set of alternative metabolic pathways; these analyses also helped develop a better understanding of the physiological significance of these pathways and identified previously unknown functions of well-studied metabolic pathways. Several examples of ¹³C-MFA-based fundamental investigations of poorly characterized bacteria are also analyzed. In applied investigations, flux analysis of strains that produce amino acids, vitamins and antibiotics indicated targets for modifications, suggested unconventional metabolic engineering approaches, and, most importantly, confirmed their utility. In the last section of this article, ¹³C-MFA prospects, including the monitoring of the dynamics of metabolic flux distribution during culture growth, are discussed.

The work reports the construction of Escherichia coli strain MG1655 derivatives with deleted genes that encode fumarases (fumAC, fumB, and fumABC) via the phage lambda-mediated recombination system. It has been demonstrated that the deletion of fumB gene had almost no effect on strain growth under aerobic conditions, while the deletion of the fumA and fumC genes led to a 30% decrease in the growth rate under the same conditions. When the E. coli strains with deleted fumarase genes were used to catalyze L-aspartic acid synthesis from ammonium fumarate (1.5 M solution), it was observed that only the simultaneous loss of both the fumA and fumC genes led to an at least 20% increase in the aspartic acid yields and a concurrent decrease in the content of the byproduct malic acid in the reaction mixture from 40 to 1.5–2 g/L. The results obtained in the work may be used to generate more efficient novel biocatalysts of L-aspartic acid synthesis.

Transposons are mobile genetic elements that are part of the genomic DNA of numerous organisms and belong to two classes. Unlike class I transposons, class II DNA transposons do not use the stage of RNA synthesis in their transition; they perform it by the cut-and-paste mechanism or with a replicative transposition. The integration of a DNA transposon in a new site results in the duplication of a target sequence on either side of a transposon, and its excision is, as a rule, associated with insertions and deletions. The piggyBac transposon isolated from the Trichoplusia ni moth differs from other mobile elements of its class. Due to its unique ability to leave no traces after excision from an insertion site and to perform successful transposition and transference of large DNA fragments, piggyBac is a convenient tool for the development of gene engineering approaches. The TTAA sequence serves as a target site for transposon integration: insertion in the AT-rich DNA regions is more frequent. The ability of piggyBac to be transferred to a new area independently of the cell apparatus and to restore a DNA site without error after excision lies in the mechanism of its transposition, which is discussed in detail in the present review. Along with other transposons and viruses, the piggyBac transposon is widely used in the transgenesis of various organisms; it also finds application in insertion mutagenesis and gene therapy.

The capacity of a recombinant Yarrowia lipolytica yeast strain VKPM Y3753 for succinic acid biosynthesis in a laboratory bioreactor at low pH has been studied. The batch and repeated-batch modes of fermentation of the strain were compared. The optimal conditions for repeated-batch fermentation were selected; they resulted in the accumulation of 55.3 g/L of succinic acid and the maximal productivity for this compound, 2.6 g/(L h), while lowering the pH of the broth culture to 3.65 at the end of the biosynthesis process.