Abstract
Heparosan, the capsular polysaccharide of Escherichia coli K5 having a carbohydrate backbone similar to that of heparin, has become a potential precursor for bioengineering heparin. In the heparosan biosynthesis pathway, the gene waaR encoding α-1-, 2-glycosyltransferase catalyzes the third glucosyl residues linking to the oligosaccharide chain. In the present study, a waaR deletion mutant of E. coli K5 was constructed. The mutant showed improvement of capsule polysaccharide yield. It is interesting that the heparosan molecular weight of the mutant is reduced and may become more suitable as a precursor for the production of low molecular weight heparin derived from the wild-type K5 capsular polysaccharide.
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21076195), the Science Technology Department of Zhejiang Province (Grant No. 2011C24007), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant No. 20113317110002), and the Open Research Fund of Zhejiang Province Top Key Discipline of Biological Engineering (2015).
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Huang, H., Liu, X., Lv, S. et al. Recombinant Escherichia coli K5 strain with the deletion of waaR gene decreases the molecular weight of the heparosan capsular polysaccharide. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 7877–7885 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7511-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7511-y