title: Exacerbation of substrate toxicity by IPTG in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) carrying a synthetic metabolic pathway.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Heterologous expression systems based on promoters inducible with isopropyl-β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), e.g., Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) and cognate LacI(Q)/P(lacUV5)-T7 vectors, are commonly used for production of recombinant proteins and metabolic pathways. The applicability of such cell factories is limited by the complex physiological burden imposed by overexpression of the exogenous genes during a bioprocess. This burden originates from a combination of stresses that may include competition for the expression machinery, side-reactions due to the activity of the recombinant proteins, or the toxicity of their substrates, products and intermediates. However, the physiological impact of IPTG-induced conditional expression on the recombinant host under such harsh conditions is often overlooked.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The physiological responses to IPTG of the E. coli BL21(DE3) strain and three different recombinants carrying a synthetic metabolic pathway for biodegradation of the toxic anthropogenic pollutant 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) were investigated using plating, flow cytometry, and electron microscopy. Collected data revealed unexpected negative synergistic effect of inducer of the expression system and toxic substrate resulting in pronounced physiological stress. Replacing IPTG with the natural sugar effector lactose greatly reduced such stress, demonstrating that the effect was due to the original inducer's chemical properties.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  IPTG is not an innocuous inducer; instead, it exacerbates the toxicity of haloalkane substrate and causes appreciable damage to the E. coli BL21(DE3) host, which is already bearing a metabolic burden due to its content of plasmids carrying the genes of the synthetic metabolic pathway. The concentration of IPTG can be effectively tuned to mitigate this negative effect. Importantly, we show that induction with lactose, the natural inducer of P lac , dramatically lightens the burden without reducing the efficiency of the synthetic TCP degradation pathway. This suggests that lactose may be a better inducer than IPTG for the expression of heterologous pathways in E. coli BL21(DE3).
authors.affiliation: Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic. pdvorak@cnb.csic.es.|International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital, Pekarska 53, 656 91, Brno, Czech Republic. pdvorak@cnb.csic.es.
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dvorak
authors.affiliation: Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic. chr@mail.muni.cz.|International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital, Pekarska 53, 656 91, Brno, Czech Republic. chr@mail.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chrast
authors.affiliation: Systems and Synthetic Biology Program, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología CNB-CSIC, Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain. pablo.nikel@cnb.csic.es.
authors.forename: Pablo I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Nikel
authors.affiliation: International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital, Pekarska 53, 656 91, Brno, Czech Republic. fedr@ibp.cz.|Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Kralovopolska 135, 612 65, Brno, Czech Republic. fedr@ibp.cz.
authors.forename: Radek
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fedr
authors.affiliation: International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital, Pekarska 53, 656 91, Brno, Czech Republic. ksoucek@ibp.cz.|Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Kralovopolska 135, 612 65, Brno, Czech Republic. ksoucek@ibp.cz.|Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic. ksoucek@ibp.cz.
authors.forename: Karel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Soucek
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic. msedl@med.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Miroslava
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sedlackova
authors.affiliation: Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic. radka@chemi.muni.cz.|International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital, Pekarska 53, 656 91, Brno, Czech Republic. radka@chemi.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Radka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chaloupkova
authors.affiliation: Systems and Synthetic Biology Program, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología CNB-CSIC, Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain. vdlorenzo@cnb.csic.es.
authors.forename: Víctor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: de Lorenzo
authors.affiliation: Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic. zbynek@chemi.muni.cz.|International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital, Pekarska 53, 656 91, Brno, Czech Republic. zbynek@chemi.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Zbynek
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Prokop
authors.affiliation: Loschmidt Laboratories, Department of Experimental Biology and Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A13, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic. jiri@chemi.muni.cz.|International Clinical Research Center, St. Anne's University Hospital, Pekarska 53, 656 91, Brno, Czech Republic. jiri@chemi.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Jiri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Damborsky
mesh_terms: D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism*; D007544:Isopropyl Thiogalactoside / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000235:genetics; D060847:Metabolic Engineering; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D007544:Isopropyl Thiogalactoside