Increasing arginine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum by rational strain design in combination with metabolomics and proteomics

C. glutamicum is a bacterium used for biotechnological production of amino acids and other metabolites. Arginine is of commercial importance in cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries and as food additive.

Here metabolomics and proteomics data were acquired from three C. glutamicum mutant strains and compared to wildtype extracts to gain insights into changes introduced by the rational strain design with the aim to increase arginine production in the bacterial workhorse.

Several known compounds in the arginine biosynthetic pathway could automatically be identified using the MetaboScape software. Label-free proteomics data evaluated by MaxQuant revealed significant changes of proteins involved in the arginine biosynthesis pathway. Mapping alterations detected by both OMICS approaches on biochemical pathway maps enabled quick formulation of hypotheses for the observed changes in the biological context. Our results demonstrate that combination of non-targeted omics techniques enables in-depth investigation of changes in C. glutamicum caused by rational strain design to increase production of desired metabolites.

Additionally, non-targeted metabolomics data evaluation resulted in the tentative identification of several unknown compounds — significantly changed in mutant strains — as gamma-glutamyl dipeptides.