Fig. 1

Overview of approach. A Schematic representation of osmolysis-based recovery of intracellular biomacromolecules. Product is first produced by microbial host under elevated salt concentrations. Cells are then resuspended in distilled water, causing an increase of turgor pressure due to osmotic shock, which lyses the cell membrane and enables downstream recovery of the product. B Two orthogonal strategies employed here to increase the sensitivity of microbial hosts to osmotic downshock. In one strategy (i) ALE is used to increase the halotolerance of the microbe, enabling cell growth at higher salt concentrations and therefore a greater magnitude of osmotic downshock when cells are resuspended in distilled water. In the other strategy (ii) the large-conductance mechanosensitive channel (mscL) or a related gene is deleted from the microbial host, which limits the ability of cells to export osmolytes in hypotonic solutions, increasing their susceptibility to osmotic lysis