Journal
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 368, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnaa219
Keywords
methane; methanotrophs; single carbon bioconversion; Methylocystis sp. Rockwell; metabolome; polyhydroxybutyrate
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [2019-04 399, 2012-418 393]
- Canada First Research Excellence Fund-Future Energy Systems [T01-P03]
- Alberta Innovates BioFuture [BFR058]
- Canada Foundation for Innovation-John R. Evans Leaders Fund [35 840]
- Alberta Economic Development and Trade-Small Equipment Grant Program
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This study investigated the metabolic responses of Methylocystis sp. Rockwell to different combinations of carbon and nitrogen sources. The results showed that methane-ammonium condition resulted in the highest growth, with methane-nitrate condition following closely behind. Furthermore, polyhydroxybutyrate production was higher in methanol-grown cells, regardless of the nitrogen source.
Methanotrophs use methane as a sole carbon source and thus play a critical role in its global consumption. Intensified interest in methanotrophs for their low-cost production of value-added products and large-scale industrialization has led to investigations of strain-to-strain variation in parameters for growth optimization and metabolic regulation. In this study, Methylocystis sp. Rockwell was grown with methane or methanol as a carbon source and ammonium or nitrate as a nitrogen source. The intracellular metabolomes and production of polyhydroxybutyrate, a bioplastic precursor, were compared among treatments to determine how the different combinations of carbon and nitrogen sources affected metabolite production. The methane-ammonium condition resulted in the highest growth, followed by the methane-nitrate, methanol-nitrate and methanol-ammonium conditions. Overall, the methane-ammonium and methane-nitrate conditions directed metabolism toward energy-conserving pathways, while methanol-ammonium and methanol-nitrate directed the metabolic response toward starvation pathways. Polyhydroxybutyrate was produced at greater abundances in methanol-grown cells, independent of the nitrogen source. Together, the results revealed how Methylocystis sp. Rockwell altered its metabolism with different combinations of carbon and nitrogen source, with implications for production of industrially relevant metabolites.
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