Expanding the gene regulatory network in response to osmotic stress in the halophilic Chromohalobacter salexigens
Abstract
Background: Chromohalobacter salexigens is a broad-growing halophilic bacterium considered as a biological model to study osmoadaptation and a cell factory for the production of ectoines, biostabilizing compatible solutes which have many biotechnological applications. To design new metabolic engineering strategies to obtain improved ectoines production strains of C. salexigens, a preliminary transcriptional regulatory network (TRN) core was reconstructed by using an integrative approach that combined RNAseq data from wild type and different in silico analyses. This core constituted by 598 genes and 1192 regulatory interactions was used to analyse molecular regulation events involved in metabolic osmotic stress response and ectoines metabolism.