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Biotechnology

Generation of a Prophage-Free Variant of the Fast-Growing Bacterium Vibrio natriegens

Eugen Pfeifer, Slawomir Michniewski, Cornelia Gätgens, Eugenia Münch, Felix Müller, Tino Polen, Andrew Millard, Bastian Blombach, Julia Frunzke
Eric V. Stabb, Editor
Eugen Pfeifer
aForschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute for Bio- and Geosciences 1, IBG1, Jülich, Germany
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Slawomir Michniewski
bWarwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
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Cornelia Gätgens
aForschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute for Bio- and Geosciences 1, IBG1, Jülich, Germany
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Eugenia Münch
dInstitute of Biochemical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
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Felix Müller
dInstitute of Biochemical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
eMicrobial Biotechnology, Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability, Technical University of Munich, Straubing, Germany
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Tino Polen
aForschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute for Bio- and Geosciences 1, IBG1, Jülich, Germany
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Andrew Millard
cDepartment Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
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Bastian Blombach
eMicrobial Biotechnology, Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability, Technical University of Munich, Straubing, Germany
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Julia Frunzke
aForschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Institute for Bio- and Geosciences 1, IBG1, Jülich, Germany
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Eric V. Stabb
University of Georgia
Roles: Editor
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DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00853-19
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ABSTRACT

The fast-growing marine bacterium Vibrio natriegens represents an emerging strain for molecular biology and biotechnology. Genome sequencing and quantitative PCR analysis revealed that the first chromosome of V. natriegens ATCC 14048 contains two prophage regions (VNP1 and VNP2) that are both inducible by the DNA-damaging agent mitomycin C and exhibit spontaneous activation under standard cultivation conditions. Their activation was also confirmed by live cell imaging of an mCherry fusion to the major capsid proteins of VNP1 and VNP2. Transmission electron microscopy visualized the release of phage particles belonging to the Siphoviridae family into the culture supernatant. Freeing V. natriegens from its proviral load, followed by phenotypic characterization, revealed an improved robustness of the prophage-free variant toward DNA-damaging conditions, reduced cell lysis under hypo-osmotic conditions, and an increased pyruvate production compared to wild-type levels. Remarkably, the prophage-free strain outcompeted the wild type in a competitive growth experiment, emphasizing that this strain is a promising platform for future metabolic engineering approaches.

IMPORTANCE The fast-growing marine bacterium Vibrio natriegens represents an emerging model host for molecular biology and biotechnology, featuring a reported doubling time of less than 10 minutes. In many bacterial species, viral DNA (prophage elements) may constitute a considerable fraction of the whole genome and may have detrimental effects on the growth and fitness of industrial strains. Genome analysis revealed the presence of two prophage regions in the V. natriegens genome that were shown to undergo spontaneous induction under standard cultivation conditions. In this study, we generated a prophage-free variant of V. natriegens. Remarkably, the prophage-free strain exhibited a higher tolerance toward DNA damage and hypo-osmotic stress. Moreover, it was shown to outcompete the wild-type strain in a competitive growth experiment. In conclusion, our study presents the prophage-free variant of V. natriegens as a promising platform strain for future biotechnological applications.

FOOTNOTES

    • Received 10 April 2019.
    • Accepted 19 June 2019.
    • Accepted manuscript posted online 28 June 2019.
  • Supplemental material for this article may be found at https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00853-19.

  • Copyright © 2019 Pfeifer et al.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

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Generation of a Prophage-Free Variant of the Fast-Growing Bacterium Vibrio natriegens
Eugen Pfeifer, Slawomir Michniewski, Cornelia Gätgens, Eugenia Münch, Felix Müller, Tino Polen, Andrew Millard, Bastian Blombach, Julia Frunzke
Applied and Environmental Microbiology Aug 2019, 85 (17) e00853-19; DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00853-19

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Generation of a Prophage-Free Variant of the Fast-Growing Bacterium Vibrio natriegens
Eugen Pfeifer, Slawomir Michniewski, Cornelia Gätgens, Eugenia Münch, Felix Müller, Tino Polen, Andrew Millard, Bastian Blombach, Julia Frunzke
Applied and Environmental Microbiology Aug 2019, 85 (17) e00853-19; DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00853-19
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KEYWORDS

spontaneous prophage induction
Vibrio
bacteriophages
genome reduction
prophage
prophage-free
stress response

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