Multi-omics analysis of environmental stress resistance of cyanobacteria for the biochemical production

Abstract

Cyanobacteria are promising industrial platform capable of producing value-added biochemicals via photosynthesis. However, decrease in photosynthetic efficiency under various environmental stresses and low genome editing efficiency limits their industrial applications as production hosts. In this study, I systematically analyzed the model cyanobacteria, Synechocystis sp., to understand their responses under environmental stresses, and applied the latest genome editing tools. First, two Synechocystis sp. genome sequences were completed and compared with five other Synechocystis sp. to reveal the differences according to their habitats. Also, by analyzing the genome architecture of Synechocystis sp. such as transcription start sites, promoters, and untranslated regions, critical elements for gene expression regulation were discovered. Second, I analyzed the transcriptional and translational gene expression levels of freshwater Synechocystis sp. under high-light and low-temperature stress conditions. Furthermore, the gene expression levels of freshwater Synechocystis sp. were compared with marine Synechocystis sp. that were adapted to high salinity and high osmotic pressure. Finally, various genome editing tools such as CRISPR and base editor were applied to Synechocystis sp. to obtain a strain capable of high production of a useful secondary metabolite, p-coumaric acid. Therefore, this study improved the applicability of Synechocystis sp. as a production host for valuable compound by attaining useful information for engineering and introducing efficient engineering tools.