Objective
Bacillus species have several advantages as a host for the industrial production of proteins, including high secretion capacity, excellent fermentation characteristics and lack of toxicity. The aims of this project are to construct engineered strains and to design production strategies for the efficient secretion of native enzymes and heterologous proteins from the Bacillus subtilis microbial cell factory. These pre-competitive objectives will be achieved using an inclusive approach in which the efficiency of all stages of the secretion process (early, middle and late) will be evaluated. Bacillus species have a proven track record for the production of native industrial proteins, and extending their product range to heterologous proteins will have highly significant commercial benefits.
Having successfully identified and characterised many of the key components of the secretory pathway, the European Bacillus Secretion Group now proposes to engineer these components for enhanced secretion activity. In some cases this will involve the over-expression of components that form bottlenecks to highlevel secretion. In other cases, individual components will need to be modified so that they can form more productive interactions (or alternatively so that they do not form unproductive interactions) with heterologous proteins. A detailed biochemical study of the interactions between components of the translocase complex, and between components of this complex and secretory proteins, will provide much of the basis for the rational design of engineering strategies.
Another important component of the proposal is a systematic investigation of the expression of the genes for secretory components during exponential and post-exponential growth phases. The identification of links between gene expression, growth, cell physiology and secretion will form the basis for the most important deliverable to be obtained from the proposed research, namely the development of commercially-relevant production strategies for high-level secretion of a wide-range of proteins from engineered Bacillus species.
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
9750 AA Haren Gn
Netherlands
Participants (7)
75251 Paris
52405 Jülich
2288 GJ Rijswijk Zh
00300 Helsinki
2880 Bagsværd
NE2 4HH Newcastle - Upon Tyne
95440 Bayreuth