Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Analyses of <i>Escherichia coli</i> for Efficient Fermentation of L-Fucose

• Main Authors: Jungyeon Kim, Yu Eun Cheong, Inho Jung, Kyoung Heon Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-01-01
• Series: Marine Drugs
• Subjects: fucose; fermentation; metabolomics; transcriptomics; <i>Escherichia coli</i>; brown macroalgae
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/17/2/82

L-Fucose, one of the major monomeric sugars in brown algae, possesses high potential for use in the large-scale production of bio-based products. Although fucose catabolic pathways have been enzymatically evaluated, the effects of fucose as a carbon source on intracellular metabolism in industrial microorganisms such as <i>Escherichia coli</i> are still not identified. To elucidate the effects of fucose on cellular metabolism and to find clues for efficient conversion of fucose into bio-based products, comparative metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses were performed on <i>E. coli</i> on L-fucose and on D-glucose as a control. When fucose was the carbon source for <i>E. coli</i>, integration of the two omics analyses revealed that excess gluconeogenesis and quorum sensing led to severe depletion of ATP, resulting in accumulation and export of fucose extracellularly. Therefore, metabolic engineering and optimization are needed for <i>E. coil</i> to more efficiently ferment fucose. This is the first multi-omics study investigating the effects of fucose on cellular metabolism in <i>E. coli</i>. These omics data and their biological interpretation could be used to assist metabolic engineering of <i>E. coli</i> producing bio-based products using fucose-containing brown macroalgae.