Repurposing type III polyketide synthase as a malonyl-CoA biosensor for metabolic engineering in bacteria

Malonyl-CoA is an important central metabolite for the production of diverse valuable chemicals including natural products, but its intracellular availability is often limited due to the competition with essential cellular metabolism. Several malonyl-CoA biosensors have been developed for high-throughput screening of targets increasing the malonyl-CoA pool. However, they are limited for use only in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae and require multiple signal transduction steps. Here we report development of a colorimetric malonyl-CoA biosensor applicable in three industrially important bacteria: E. coli, Pseudomonas putida, and Corynebacterium glutamicum. RppA, a type III polyketide synthase producing red-colored flaviolin, was repurposed as a malonyl-CoA biosensor in E. coli. Strains with enhanced malonyl-CoA accumulation were identifiable by the colorimetric screening of cells showing increased red color. Other type III polyketide synthases could also be repurposed as malonyl-CoA biosensors. For target screening, a 1,858 synthetic small regulatory RNA library was constructed and applied to find 14 knockdown gene targets that generally enhanced malonyl-CoA level in E. coli. These knockdown targets were applied to produce two polyketide (6-methylsalicylic acid and aloesone) and two phenylpropanoid (resveratrol and naringenin) compounds. Knocking down these genes alone or in combination, and also in multiple different E. coli strains for two polyketide cases, allowed rapid development of engineered strains capable of enhanced production of 6-methylsalicylic acid, aloesone, resveratrol, and naringenin to 440.3, 30.9, 51.8, and 103.8 mg/L, respectively. The malonyl-CoA biosensor developed here is a simple tool generally applicable to metabolic engineering of microorganisms to achieve enhanced production of malonyl-CoA–derived chemicals.