Design and Construction of Designer Bioester Libraries for Validation of the Modular Cell Theory
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2016 Design and Construction of Designer Bioester Libraries for Validation of the Modular Cell Theory Donovan Layton University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Layton, Donovan, "Design and Construction of Designer Bioester Libraries for Validation of the Modular Cell Theory. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2016. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4101 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Donovan Layton entitled "Design and Construction of Designer Bioester Libraries for Validation of the Modular Cell Theory." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Chemical Engineering. Cong T. Trinh, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Gladys Alexandre, Eric Boder, Paul Dalhaimer Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Design and Construction of Designer Bioester Libraries for Validation of the Modular Cell Theory A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Donovan Layton December 2016 Copyright © 2016 by Donovan S. Layton All rights reserved. ii Dedicated to my parents Mitch and Sherry and my grandparents Barbra, Betty, Jay and Sam iii Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank and praise my savior, Jesus Christ. Without him, none of this would be possible. Second, I would like to immensely thank my advisor, Dr. Cong T. Trinh, for all of the guidance and insight that has been instrumental to my research. The stimulating discussion and teachings have allowed me to pursue some of my crazy ideas and develop interesting techniques. I would not be writing this otherwise. I would like to thank my committee members, Gladys Alexandre, Eric Boder, Paul Dalhaimer and my collaborators, Fu-Min Menn and Adam Guss for their discussions and support for my PhD. I am immensely grateful for Amy Brewer, Rita Gray, Amber Tipton and Jennifer Wolfenbarger for their general guidance and help with ordering my research materials. I am additionally very grateful for the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Tennessee and the BioEnergy Science Center at Oak Ridge National Lab for admitting me to the program and their continual support for my research. I am immensely grateful for Laura Jarboe for sparking my initial interest in pursuing my graduate degree and passion for research at Iowa State University. I would additionally like to thank both Elsevier and Wiley publishing groups for publishing my works in this dissertation. I would specifically like to thank Tyler Bennett, Brian Fane, R. Adam Thompson, and Michael Wierzbicki for lending their ear at any time of the day, sometimes at 3 am, discussing all ideas, and for their great friendship. The countless conversations, ideas, and iv guidance throughout my graduate research would not be completed without them. I would like to thank my closest friends from home and Iowa State University for their friendship and their overwhelming support and interest in my research, in particular Emily Davenport, Greg Goin, Cody Hopkins, KC Keim, Ryan Kincade, Chuck Light, Brett Mech, Cody Moore, Jake O’Brien, Jarred O’Brien, and Mark Spero. I would additionally like to thank my closest friends I have developed at the University of Tennessee for their friendship, support, ideas and discussions, in particular, Rob Atkinson, Alex Meyers, Beth Conerty. I would also like to thank my lab mates for their friendship, support, discussions and for smelling my bacterial cultures, validating I wasn’t crazy, in particular Lorenzo Briganti, D.J. Conner, Sergio Garcia, Julie Hipp, Drew Kirkpatrick, Jong-Won Lee, Katie Lutes, Brian Mendoza, Dr. Paulo Avilo Neto, Dr. Narayan Niraula, Dr. Seunghyun Ryu, Kevin Spellman, Caleb Walker, Brandon Wilbanks, and Akshitha Yarrabothoula. I would also like to further thank Brandon Wilbanks for all of the help and discussions with various aspects of my research and for making sacrifices to take time points in the middle of the night. I could not have done it all without him. Finally, I would like to thank my family members including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and parents for all of their unfathomable encouragement love, kindness, and support. I would have never accomplished this work without them. I am grateful for my sisters Shannon and Allyson for all of their laughs and phone calls always checking in with me. I am also grateful for my parents Mitch and Sherry who without their instilled drive, fight, and determination, I would not be here today. I love you all. v Abstract Renewable and sustainable fuels and chemicals are required for mankind to reduce their dependence on petroleum. Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology have provided avenues for production of renewable fuels and chemicals by using waste feedstocks derived from biomass, municipal, and off gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, using microbial cell factories. However, development of optimal microbial cell factories has been a challenge due to the vast combinations of pathways, genetic parts, and hosts to produce a targeted product. The purpose of this work is for validation of the modular cell theory via rational pathway design and testing for development of optimal microbial cell factories. This dissertation is divided up into four different parts. Part I focuses on engineering and production of butyrate ester libraries for use as fuels, flavors, fragrances and solvents, specifically ethyl butyrate, isopropyl butyrate, and isobutyl butyrate using a modular chassis cell derived from the modular cell theory. Part II focuses on the synthesis of designer esters from waste organic acids, the carboxylates, as well as characterizing the enzyme responsible for condensing ester precursor molecules for novel activity using the modular chassis cell. Part III focuses on the expansion of part II by modulating an ester precursor molecule for the production of novel esters that can be used as next generation biofuels. Part IV focuses on further validating the modular cell theory by using growth-based selection for ethanol production by varying open reading frames and genetic parts. The work presented will validate and further provide insights to modular cell theory and ester biosynthesis from fermentable sugars and organic acids. vi Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................1 1.1 References ............................................................................................................ 8 2 Engineering Modular Ester Fermentative Pathways in Escherichia coli ............15 2.1 Abstract .............................................................................................................. 16 2.2 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 17 2.2.1 Materials and Methods ................................................................................ 21 2.2.2 Strain construction ...................................................................................... 21 2.2.3 Plasmid/pathway construction .................................................................... 21 2.2.3.1 Construction of the butyryl-CoA submodule ...................................... 26 2.2.3.2 Construction of the butyryl-CoA plus AAT submodule ..................... 27 2.2.3.3 Construction of the ethanol production submodule ............................. 27 2.2.3.4 Construction of the isopropanol production submodule ...................... 28 2.2.3.5 Construction of the isobutanol production submodule. ....................... 28 2.2.4 Medium and cell culturing techniques ........................................................ 29 2.2.4.1 Culture media ...................................................................................... 29 2.2.4.2 Strain characterization for ester production ......................................... 29 2.2.5 Analytical methods ..................................................................................... 31 2.2.5.1 High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)............................. 31 2.2.5.2 Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) ....... 31 2.3 Results ................................................................................................................ 32 2.3.1 Establishing the butyrate ester fermentative pathways in E. coli ............... 32 2.3.1.1 Investigating targeted butyrate ester production by alcohol addition .. 33 2.3.1.2 Demonstrating extracellular secretion of butyrate esters .................... 35 2.3.1.3 Engineering E. coli base strain