Impact of CO2/HCO3– Availability on Anaplerotic Flux in Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex-Deficient Corynebacterium glutamicum Strains

The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) catalyzes the oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate, yielding acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) and CO2. The PDHC-deficient Corynebacterium glutamicum Delta aceE strain therefore lacks an important decarboxylation step in its central metabolism. Additional inactivation of pyc, encoding pyruvate carboxylase, resulted in a >15-h lag phase in the presence of glucose, while no growth defect was observed on gluconeogenetic substrates, such as acetate. Growth was successfully restored by deletion of ptsG, encoding the glucose-specific permease of the phosphotransferase system (PTS), thereby linking the observed phenotype to the increased sensitivity of the Delta aceE Delta pyc strain to glucose catabolism. In this work, the Delta aceE Delta pyc strain was used to systematically study the impact of perturbations of the intracellular CO2/HCO3- pool on growth and anaplerotic flux. Remarkably, all measures leading to enhanced CO2/HCO3- levels, such as external addition of HCO3-, increasing the pH, or rerouting metabolic flux via the pentose phosphate pathway, at least partially eliminated the lag phase of the Delta aceE Delta pyc strain on glucose medium. In accordance with these results, inactivation of the urease enzyme, lowering the intracellular CO2/HCO3- pool, led to an even longer lag phase, accompanied by the excretion of L-valine and L-alanine. Transcriptome analysis, as well as an adaptive laboratory evolution experiment with the Delta aceE Delta pyc strain, revealed the reduction of glucose uptake as a key adaptive measure to enhance growth on glucose-acetate mixtures. Taken together, our results highlight the significant impact of the intracellular CO2/HCO3- pool on metabolic flux distribution, which becomes especially evident in engineered strains exhibiting low endogenous CO2 production rates, as exemplified by PDHC-deficient strains. IMPORTANCE CO2 is a ubiquitous product of cellular metabolism and an essential substrate for carboxylation reactions. The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) catalyzes a central metabolic reaction contributing to the intracellular CO2/HCO3- pool in many organisms. In this study, we used a PDHC-deficient strain of Corynebacterium glutamicum, which additionally lacked pyruvate carboxylase (Delta aceE Delta pyc). This strain featured a >15-h lag phase during growth on glucose-acetate mixtures. We used this strain to systematically assess the impact of alterations in the intracellular CO2/HCO3- pool on growth in glucose-acetate medium. Remarkably, all measures enhancing CO2/HCO3- levels successfully restored growth. These results emphasize the strong impact of the intracellular CO2/HCO3- pool on metabolic flux, especially in strains exhibiting low endogenous CO2 production rates.