Applying a Metabolic Footprinting Approach to Characterize the Impact of the Recombinant Protein Production in Escherichia coli

Abstract

In this study metabolic footprinting was applied to evaluate the metabolic consequences of protein overproduction at slow growth conditions (mu = 0.1 h(-1)). The extracellular metabolites detected by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry characterized the metabolic footprints before and after the induction of the recombinant protein production (i.e. pre- and post-induction phases). Metabolic footprinting enabled the discrimination between the two growth phases and exposed significant alterations in the extracellular milieu during the recombinant process.