title: A novel CO-responsive transcriptional regulator and enhanced H2 production by an engineered Thermococcus onnurineus NA1 strain.
abstract: Genome analysis revealed the existence of a putative transcriptional regulatory system governing CO metabolism in Thermococcus onnurineus NA1, a carboxydotrophic hydrogenogenic archaeon. The regulatory system is composed of CorQ with a 4-vinyl reductase domain and CorR with a DNA-binding domain of the LysR-type transcriptional regulator family in close proximity to the CO dehydrogenase (CODH) gene cluster. Homologous genes of the CorQR pair were also found in the genomes of Thermococcus species and "Candidatus Korarchaeum cryptofilum" OPF8. In-frame deletion of either corQ or corR caused a severe impairment in CO-dependent growth and H2 production. When corQ and corR deletion mutants were complemented by introducing the corQR genes under the control of a strong promoter, the mRNA and protein levels of the CODH gene were significantly increased in a ΔCorR strain complemented with integrated corQR (ΔCorR/corQR(↑)) compared with those in the wild-type strain. In addition, the ΔCorR/corQR(↑) strain exhibited a much higher H2 production rate (5.8-fold) than the wild-type strain in a bioreactor culture. The H2 production rate (191.9 mmol liter(-1) h(-1)) and the specific H2 production rate (249.6 mmol g(-1) h(-1)) of this strain were extremely high compared with those of CO-dependent H2-producing prokaryotes reported so far. These results suggest that the corQR genes encode a positive regulatory protein pair for the expression of a CODH gene cluster. The study also illustrates that manipulation of the transcriptional regulatory system can improve biological H2 production.
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Min-Sik
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ae Ran
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea Department of Marine Biotechnology, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seong Hyuk
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea Department of Marine Biotechnology, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hae-Chang
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea Department of Marine Biotechnology, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seung Seob
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tae-Jun
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Kyu
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, California State University, Fresno, California, USA.
authors.forename: Hwan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Youn
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea Department of Marine Biotechnology, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Wan
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea Department of Marine Biotechnology, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea leeh522@kiost.ac sgkang@kiost.ac.
authors.forename: Hyun Sook
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Ansan, Republic of Korea Department of Marine Biotechnology, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea leeh522@kiost.ac sgkang@kiost.ac.
authors.forename: Sung Gyun
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Kang
mesh_terms: D000445:Aldehyde Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D019641:DNA, Archaeal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D017353:Gene Deletion; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D019848:Gene Expression Regulation, Archaeal / Q000187:drug effects*; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005810:Multigene Family; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D019712:Thermococcus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D019641:DNA, Archaeal; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D014157:Transcription Factors; D002248:Carbon Monoxide; D006859:Hydrogen; D000445:Aldehyde Oxidoreductases; C019823:carbon monoxide dehydrogenase