Engineering of global transcription factor FruR to redirect the carbon flow in Escherichia coli for enhancing l-phenylalanine biosynthesis

BACKGROUND: The catabolite repressor/activator protein (FruR) is a global regulatory protein known to control the expression of several genes concerned with carbon utilization and energy metabolism. This study aimed to illustrate effects of the FruR mutant on the (L-)phenylalanine ((L-)PHE) producing strain PHE01. RESULTS: Random mutagenesis libraries of fruR generated in vitro were first integrated into the chromosome of PHE01 by CRISPR/Cas9 technique, and then the best mutant PHE07 (FruR(E173K)) was obtained. With this mutant, a final (L-)PHE concentration of 70.50 ± 1.02 g/L was achieved, which was 23.34% higher than that of PHE01. To better understand the mechanism, both transcriptomes and metabolomes of PHE07 were carried out and compared to that of PHE01. Specifically, the transcript levels of genes involved in gluconeogenesis pathway, pentose phosphate pathway, Krebs cycle, and glyoxylate shunt were up-regulated in the FruR(E173K) mutant, whereas genes aceEF, acnB, and icd were down-regulated. From the metabolite level, the FruR(E173K) mutation led to an accumulation of pentose phosphate pathway and Krebs cycle products, whereas the products of pyruvate metabolism pathway: acetyl-CoA and cis-aconic acid, were down-regulated. As a result of the altered metabolic flows, the utilization of carbon sources was improved and the supply of precursors (phosphoenolpyruvate and erythrose 4-phosphate) for (L-)PHE biosynthesis was increased, which together led to the enhanced production of (L-)PHE. CONCLUSION: A novel strategy for (L-)PHE overproduction by modification of the global transcription factor FruR in E. coli was reported. Especially, these findings expand the scope of pathways affected by the fruR regulon and illustrate its importance as a global regulator in (L-)PHE production. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12934-022-01954-7.