Development of CRISPRa for metabolic engineering applications in cyanobacteria

WANG Tiantian; ZHU Hong; YANG Chen

doi:10.12211/2096-8280.2022-077

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Development of CRISPRa for metabolic engineering applications in cyanobacteria

Research Article | 更新时间：2025-03-20

- Development of CRISPRa for metabolic engineering applications in cyanobacteria
- Synthetic Biology Journal Vol. 4, Issue 4, Pages: 824-839(2023)
- 作者机构：
  
  1.中国科学院合成生物学重点实验室，中国科学院分子植物科学卓越创新中心，上海 200032
  2.中国科学院大学，北京 100049
- 作者简介：
- 基金信息：
- DOI：10.12211/2096-8280.2022-077
  CLC： Q819
- Received：30 December 2022，
  
  Revised：2023-02-20，
  
  Published：31 August 2023
- 稿件说明：
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王甜甜，朱虹，杨琛. 蓝细菌CRISPRa系统的开发及其代谢工程应用［J］. 合成生物学， 2023， 4（4）： 824-839

WANG Tiantian， ZHU Hong， YANG Chen. Development of CRISPRa for metabolic engineering applications in cyanobacteria［J］. Synthetic Biology Journal， 2023， 4（4）： 824-839
王甜甜，朱虹，杨琛. 蓝细菌CRISPRa系统的开发及其代谢工程应用［J］. 合成生物学， 2023， 4（4）： 824-839 DOI： 10.12211/2096-8280.2022-077.

WANG Tiantian， ZHU Hong， YANG Chen. Development of CRISPRa for metabolic engineering applications in cyanobacteria［J］. Synthetic Biology Journal， 2023， 4（4）： 824-839 DOI： 10.12211/2096-8280.2022-077.

摘要

蓝细菌是光合作用研究的模式生物之一，也是构建光能自养细胞工厂的良好底盘。然而目前蓝细菌的遗传操作工具仍然较为缺乏且效率较低，开发高效的蓝细菌基因调控工具对于蓝细菌系统与合成生物学研究具有重要意义。本研究在模式蓝细菌聚球藻PCC 7942中开发了CRISPR激活系统，测试了多个转录激活因子，将内源的RNA聚合酶ω-亚基RpoZ与无DNA切割活性的dCas9融合表达，利用高强度启动子表达向导RNA，进而敲除内源

rpoZ

基因并优化了dCas9-RpoZ的表达及靶向位点。利用建立的CRISPRa系统对重要生物燃料——异戊烯醇的生物合成途径进行了工程改造，该系统不仅能够实现单基因或多基因的高表达，还可以同时对不同基因进行转录激活和抑制，将蓝细菌中异戊烯醇的产量提高了17倍，展示了该系统有望成为构建光能自养细胞工厂的有力工具。

Abstract

Cyanobacteria can be used as a model for photosynthesis research and as a chassis for the production of fuels and chemicals from light energy and CO

. However

the genetic tools of cyanobacteria are still relatively limited. Development of efficient tools for programming gene expression is important for cyanobacterial systems and synthetic biology. Here

we developed a CRISPR transcriptional activation system (CRISPRa) for programming heterologous gene expression in a

model cyanobacterium

Synechococcus elongatus

PCC 7942. Among the transcriptional activators tested

endogenous RNA polymerase ω-subunit RpoZ resulted in optimal performance and was chosen for subsequent studies. We established CRISPRa by fusing dCas9 that lost DNA cleavage activity with RpoZ

and expressed single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) under a strongpromoter. We further improved heterologous reporter gene expression by deleting the

rpoZ

gene in

S. elongatus

PCC 7942

enhancing the expression of dCas9-RpoZ fusion

and optimizing the sgRNA targeting sites. Using this optimized CRISPRa system

we engineered

S. elongatus

PCC 7942 for improved production of isopentenol

an ideal biofuel candidate. Furthermore

we demonstrated that this system was able to simultaneously activate multiple genes of the biosynthetic pathway and repress a gene of the competing pathway

thereby increasing the isopentenol production by 17 times. Thus

this CRISPRa system could serve as a powerful tool for the construction of photoautotrophic cell factories.

关键词

Keywords

references

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