Engineered Cells for Production of Indole-Derivatives
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Downloaded from orbit.dtu.dk on: Oct 05, 2021 Engineered cells for production of indole-derivatives Kell, Douglas; Yang, Lei; Malla, Sailesh Publication date: 2020 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link back to DTU Orbit Citation (APA): Kell, D., Yang, L., & Malla, S. (2020). Engineered cells for production of indole-derivatives. (Patent No. WO2020187739). General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. ) ( 2 (51) International Patent Classification: C07K 14/715 (2006.01) (21) International Application Number: PCT/EP2020/056828 (22) International Filing Date: 13 March 2020 (13.03.2020) (25) Filing Language: English (26) Publication Language: English (30) Priority Data: 19163 184.5 15 March 2019 (15.03.2019) EP (71) Applicant: DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET [DK/DK]; Anker Engelunds Vej 101 A, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby (DK). (72) Inventors: KELL, Douglas, Bruce; Chirk Manor, Trevor Rd, Chirk, Wrexham LL14 5HD (GB). YANG, Lei; Hojbovej 7A, 3460 Birkerod (DK). MALLA, Sailesh; Slaenhoj 18, 2990 Niva (DK). (74) Agent: INSPICOS P/S; Kogle Alle 2, 2970 Horsholm (DK). (81) Designated States (unless otherwise indicated, for every kind of national protection available) : AE, AG, AL, AM, AO, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BH, BN, BR, BW, BY, BZ, CA, CH, CL, CN, CO, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DJ, DK, DM, DO, DZ, EC, EE, EG, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, GT, HN, HR, HU, ID, IL, IN, IR, IS, JO, JP, KE, KG, KH, KN, KP, KR, KW, KZ, LA, LC, LK, LR, LS, LU, LY, MA, MD, ME, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, MY, MZ, NA, NG, NI, NO, NZ, OM, PA, PE, PG, PH, PL, PT, QA, RO, RS, RU, RW, SA, SC, SD, SE, SG, SK, SL, ST, SV, SY, TH, TJ, TM, TN, TR, TT, TZ, UA, UG, US, UZ, VC, VN, WS, ZA, ZM, ZW. (84) Designated States (unless otherwise indicated, for every kind of regional protection available) : ARIPO (BW, GH, GM, KE, LR, LS, MW, MZ, NA, RW, SD, SL, ST, SZ, TZ, UG, ZM, ZW), Eurasian (AM, AZ, BY, KG, KZ, RU, TJ, TM), European (AL, AT, BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, LT, LU, LV, MC, MK, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, SK, SM, TR), OAPI (BF, BJ, CF, CG, Cl, CM, GA, GN, GQ, GW, KM, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG). Declarations under Rule 4.17: — of inventorship (Rule 4.17 (iv)) Published: — with international search report (Art. 21(3)) — with sequence listing part of description (Rule 5.2(a)) (54) Title: ENGINEERED CELLS FOR PRODUCTION OF INDOLE-DERIVATIVES (57) Abstract: Integral membrane proteins capable of transporting melatonin and other indole-derivatives across biological membranes, and uses thereof. ENGINEERED CELLS FOR PRODUCTION OF INDOLE-DERIVATIVES FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to integ ral membra ne proteins ca pable of tra nsporting melatonin and other indole-derivatives across biologica l membra nes, and well as the use of such integra l membra ne proteins in cell factories for production of melaton in and other indole-derivatives. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Melatonin is an antioxida nt hormone prod uced in mamma ls that can be used for treating sleep disorders. One of the intermediates in the biolog ica l pathway for prod uction of melatonin ; 5-hyd roxy-L-tryptophan (5HTP), has also been used as a sleep aid as well as an antidepressa nt. Commercia l prod uction of melatonin and 5HTP has so far predomina ntly relied on chemical synthesis, or, in the case of 5HTP, extraction from plants. Producing ' natural' melatonin or 5HTP biolog ica lly in so-ca lled cell factories, i.e ., cells eng ineered to prod uce these compounds, would be high ly desira ble. Such recombinant production of melatonin, 5HTP and other indole-derivatives from tryptopha n is described in, e .g., WO 2013/ 1279 15 Al, WO 2015/0329 11 Al, WO 2017/ 167866 Al, WO 2017/202897 A 1 and WO 2018/037098 A 1 (Danma rks Tekniske Universitet) . Tra nsporters are responsible for cellular exchange of both sma ll molecules and macromolecules (Kell, 20 18; WO13093737 Al (BASF)) . Transporters ca n be engineered to decrease intracellular prod uct concentration, improve substrate uptake, red uce feedback inh ibition or improve cellular growth . Transporters ca n therefore play an important role in bio-based production for improving product titers in fermentation as well as facilitating downstrea m purification process. EP2267 145 Al (Evonik Degussa GmbH) relates to a process for the prod uction of L-amino acids, in particu lar L-threonine, in recombina nt microorga nisms of the family Enterobacteriaceae, in which at the open read ing fra me (ORF) of yhaO is deleted, optiona lly together with a deletion or downregulation of, e .g., yhjV. UniProtKB data base entry P37660 (YHJV_ECOLI) describes E. coli protein YhjV as an inner membra ne tra nsport protein, based on phylogenetic grounds. Sa rgentin i et al. (20 18) reports a screen for genes involved in rad iation surviva l of E. coli, mentioning yhjV among the genes identified . Despite these and other prog resses in the art, however, there is a need for recombinant cells and their use in methods provid ing for cost-effective prod uction of melatonin, 5HTP and other desira ble bioprod ucts. So, one object of the invention is to identify transporters useful for engineering cells towards improved export of melatonin, 5HTP and other indole-derivatives. SUM MARY OF THE INVENTION I n a first aspect, the present invention relates to a recombinant cell comprising a biosynthetic pathway for producing an indole-derivative selected from melatonin, N-acetylseroton in, serotonin and 5-hyd roxytryptopha n (5HTP), wherein the recombina nt cell is genetica lly mod ified to overexpress a gene encod ing an integ ral membrane protein selected from YhjV (SEQ I D NO :2), GarP (SEQ I D N0 :4), ArgO (SEQ I D NO :6), AcrAB (SEQ I D NOS : 10 and 12) and LysP (SEQ I D NO :8), a functiona lly active varia nt and/or frag ment of any thereof, or a combination of any two or more thereof, and wherein the amino acid seq uence of the variant has a sequence identity of at least about 80 % to the amino acid seq uence of the integra l membrane protein and the fragment comprises at least about 80 % of the amino acid sequence of the integ ral membrane protein . I n some embod iments, the recombina nt cell overexpresses a gene encod ing YhjV, Ga rP, ArgO or AcrAB, or a combination of any two or more thereof. I n some embodiments, the recombina nt cell overexpresses a gene encod ing YhjV or a functiona lly active varia nt thereof. I n some embodiments, the biosynthetic pathway comprises (a) an L-tryptopha n hyd roxylase; (b) an L-tryptophan hydroxylase and a 5HTP deca rboxylase; (c) an L-tryptopha n hyd roxylase, a 5HTP deca rboxylase, and a serotonin acetyltra nsferase; (d) an L-tryptopha n hyd roxylase, a 5HTP deca rboxylase, a serotonin acetyltra nsferase and an acetylserotonin O- methyltra nsferase; (e) a tryptophan decarboxylase and a tryptamine 5-hyd roxylase; (f) a tryptopha n deca rboxylase; a tryptamine 5-hyd roxylase, and a seroton in acetyltra nsferase; or (g) a tryptophan deca rboxylase; a tryptamine 5-hydroxylase, a seroton in acetyltransferase and an acetylserotonin O-methyltra nsferase. I n some embodiments, the overexpression of the gene encod ing the integ ral membrane protein provides for an increased prod uction of the indole-derivative, an increased tolera nce to the indole-derivative, or both, by the recombina nt cell as compa red to a non-mod ified control cell. I n a second aspect, the invention relates to a recombina nt cell ca pa ble of producing a second indole-derivative from a first indole-derivative via a biosynthetic pathway, wherein the recombinant cell is genetica lly mod ified to overexpress a gene encod ing YhjV (SEQ I D NO :2), or a functiona lly active varia nt and/or frag ment thereof, wherein the amino acid sequence of the variant has a seq uence identity of at least about 80% to SEQ I D NO :2 and the frag ment comprises at least about 80% of SEQ I D NO :2 . I n some embodiments, the recombina nt cell overexpresses a gene encod ing YhjV or a functiona lly active varia nt thereof. I n some embodiments, the first and second indole- derivatives are : (a) tryptopha n and melatonin, respectively; (b) tryptopha n and N- acetylserotonin, respectively; (c) tryptophan and serotonin, respectively; and (d) tryptophan and 5-hyd roxytryptophan, respectively. I n some embodiments, the overexpression of the gene encod ing YhjV or the functiona lly active varia nt and/or frag ment thereof provides for an increased prod uction of the second indole-derivative, an increased tolerance to the second indole-derivative, or both, by the recombinant cell as compa red to a non-modified control cell.