Part:BBa_K4719014

AGM1-GFA1-GNA1-UAP1 operon for synthesis of bacterial cellulose-chitin copolymer

Introduction

Vilnius-Lithuania iGEM 2023 team's goal was to create a universal synthetic biology system for Komagataeibacter xylinus for in vivo bacterial cellulose polymer composition modification. Firstly, we chose to produce a cellulose-chitin polymer that would later be deacetylated, creating bacterial cellulose-chitosan. This polymer is an easily modifiable platform when compared to bacterial cellulose. The enhanced chemical reactivity of the bacterial cellulose-chitosan polymer allows for specific functionalizations in the biomedicine field, such as scaffold design. As a second approach, we designed indigo-dyed cellulose that could be used as a green chemistry way to apply cellulose in the textile industry. Lastly, we have achieved a composite of bacterial cellulose and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), which is synthesized by K. xylinus.

Bacterial cellulose-chitin polymer was achieved by increasing the production of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine, which can be recognized as a viable substrate for cellulose synthase and incorporated in the bacterial cellulose polymer. We employed two strategies to produce this material. The first approach was to add N-acetylglucosamine into the growth medium BBa_K4719013, and the second one was the production of N-acetylglucosamine by K. xylinus from simple sugars such as glucose, fructose, and saccharose in the growth medium BBa_K4719014.

Usage and Biology

This construct produces an excess of UDP-N-Acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) in K. xylinus, which can be used by cellulose synthase to produce bacterial cellulose-chitin polymer. Incorporation of N-acetylglucosamine has been previously demonstrated by M. H. Tan (2019) and V. Yadav (2010). K. xylinus requires genetic modification in order to incorporate GlCNAc into the bacterial cellulose as the natural conversion to UDP-GlcNAc is not efficient. The genes in this composite code for proteins that are responsible for the conversion of various carbon sources such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose to UDP-GlcNAc. Therefore, the growth medium doesn't have to be supplemented with GlcNAc, this significantly reduces the cost of production.

Bacterial cellulose-chitin copolymer has applications in the biomedicine field due to in vivo biodegradability by the lysosome. However, this copolymer is an intermediate step in your biological system since we chose to improve the qualities of the material by deacetylation. This second enzymatic step produces a bacterial cellulose-chitosan copolymer that has the added benefits of antibacterial activity and amino groups for easier functionalization.

Since polymer production occurs in K. xylinus it requires a specific plasmid backbone (pSEVA331-Bb) for successful replication. We choose to use BBa_K1321313 as it was characterized by iGEM14_Imperial team as the most suitable synthetic biology tool for Komagateibacter species. We performed PCR of the plasmid eliminating mRFP in order to preserve Anderson promoter J23104 BBa_J23104 and terminator BBa_B0015. AGM1, GFA1, GNA1 and UAP1 were assembled into the backbone by Gibson assembly.

Experimental characterization

Polymer production

Bacterial cellulose-chitin polymer is synthesized by K. xylinus grown in the Glucose Yeast Extract broth (GYB) while shaking at 180 rpm at 28°C, for 7 days. Varying concentrations of glucose, fructose and sucrose have been added to determine the best combination of growing conditions for the polymer with the highest content of N-acetylglucosamine.

Floresence analysis of N-acetylglucosamine incorporation

Figure 2: A - bacterial cellulose-chitin grown on 2% glucose. B - bacterial cellulose grown on 2% fructose. C - bacterial cellulose-chitin copolymer grown on 2% sucrose. D - bacterial cellulose-chitin copolymer grown on 1% glucose and 1% fructose. E - bacterial cellulose-chitin copolymer grown on 1% glucose and 1% sucrose. F - bacterial cellulose-chitin copolymer grown on 1% fructose and 1% sucrose. G - bacterial cellulose control group. H - bacterial cellulose grown on 1% glucose and 1% N-acetylglucosamine. The best results were achieved with 2% fructose, 1% fructose and 1% sucrose.