Coregulation of Terpenoid Pathway Genes and Prediction of Isoprene Production in Bacillus subtilis Using Transcriptomics

PLoS One. 2013 Jun 19;8(6):e66104. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066104. Print 2013.

Abstract

The isoprenoid pathway converts pyruvate to isoprene and related isoprenoid compounds in plants and some bacteria. Currently, this pathway is of great interest because of the critical role that isoprenoids play in basic cellular processes, as well as the industrial value of metabolites such as isoprene. Although the regulation of several pathway genes has been described, there is a paucity of information regarding system level regulation and control of the pathway. To address these limitations, we examined Bacillus subtilis grown under multiple conditions and determined the relationship between altered isoprene production and gene expression patterns. We found that with respect to the amount of isoprene produced, terpenoid genes fall into two distinct subsets with opposing correlations. The group whose expression levels positively correlated with isoprene production included dxs, which is responsible for the commitment step in the pathway, ispD, and two genes that participate in the mevalonate pathway, yhfS and pksG. The subset of terpenoid genes that inversely correlated with isoprene production included ispH, ispF, hepS, uppS, ispE, and dxr. A genome-wide partial least squares regression model was created to identify other genes or pathways that contribute to isoprene production. These analyses showed that a subset of 213 regulated genes was sufficient to create a predictive model of isoprene production under different conditions and showed correlations at the transcriptional level. We conclude that gene expression levels alone are sufficiently informative about the metabolic state of a cell that produces increased isoprene and can be used to build a model that accurately predicts production of this secondary metabolite across many simulated environmental conditions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Bacillus subtilis / genetics
  • Bacillus subtilis / growth & development*
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • Biosynthetic Pathways
  • Butadienes / metabolism*
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Hemiterpenes / metabolism*
  • Least-Squares Analysis
  • Pentanes / metabolism*
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA / methods*
  • Terpenes / metabolism

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Butadienes
  • Hemiterpenes
  • Pentanes
  • Terpenes
  • isoprene

Grants and funding

Funding is provided by Washington State University and financial support from the Washington State STAR researcher program to B.A.K. Portions of this work were conducted as part of a multi-capability research campaign in the W. R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a national scientific user facility sponsored by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and is a contribution of the PNNL Foundational Scientific Focus Area. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a multi-program national laboratory operated by Battelle for the United States Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.