TY - JOUR
T1 - Engineering PQS Biosynthesis Pathway for Enhancement of Bioelectricity Production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Microbial Fuel Cells
AU - Wang, Victor Bochuan
AU - Chua, Song Lin
AU - Cao, Bin
AU - Seviour, Thomas
AU - Nesatyy, Victor J.
AU - Marsili, Enrico
AU - Kjelleberg, Staffan
AU - Givskov, Michael
AU - Tolker-Nielsen, Tim
AU - Song, Hao
AU - Loo, Joachim Say Chye
AU - Yang, Liang
PY - 2013/5/20
Y1 - 2013/5/20
N2 - The biosynthesis of the redox shuttle, phenazines, in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an ubiquitous microorganism in wastewater microflora, is regulated by the 2-heptyl-3,4-dihydroxyquinoline (PQS) quorum-sensing system. However, PQS inhibits anaerobic growth of P. aeruginosa. We constructed a P. aeruginosa strain that produces higher concentrations of phenazines under anaerobic conditions by over-expressing the PqsE effector in a PQS negative ΔpqsC mutant. The engineered strain exhibited an improved electrical performance in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and potentiostat-controlled electrochemical cells with an approximate five-fold increase of maximum current density relative to the parent strain. Electrochemical analysis showed that the current increase correlates with an over-synthesis of phenazines. These results therefore demonstrate that targeting microbial cell-to-cell communication by genetic engineering is a suitable technique to improve power output of bioelectrochemical systems.
AB - The biosynthesis of the redox shuttle, phenazines, in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an ubiquitous microorganism in wastewater microflora, is regulated by the 2-heptyl-3,4-dihydroxyquinoline (PQS) quorum-sensing system. However, PQS inhibits anaerobic growth of P. aeruginosa. We constructed a P. aeruginosa strain that produces higher concentrations of phenazines under anaerobic conditions by over-expressing the PqsE effector in a PQS negative ΔpqsC mutant. The engineered strain exhibited an improved electrical performance in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and potentiostat-controlled electrochemical cells with an approximate five-fold increase of maximum current density relative to the parent strain. Electrochemical analysis showed that the current increase correlates with an over-synthesis of phenazines. These results therefore demonstrate that targeting microbial cell-to-cell communication by genetic engineering is a suitable technique to improve power output of bioelectrochemical systems.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84877880240&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0063129
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0063129
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 23700414
AN - SCOPUS:84877880240
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 8
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 5
M1 - e63129
ER -