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The organic compound 2-phenylethanol (2PE) has a pleasant floral scent and is intensively used in the cosmetic and food industries. Microbial production of 2PE by phenylalanine bioconversion orde novobiosynthesis from sugar offer sustainable, reliable and natural production processes compared to chemical synthesis. Despite the ability ofSaccharomyces cerevisiaeto naturally synthesize 2PE,de novosynthesis in high concentration and yield remains a metabolic engineering challenge. Here, we demonstrate that improving phosphoenolpyruvate supply by expressing pyruvate kinase variants and eliminating the formation ofp-hydroxy-phenylethanol without creating tyrosine auxotrophy significantly contributed to improve 2PE production inS. cerevisiae. In combination with the engineering of the aromatic amino acid biosynthesis and Ehrlich pathway, these mutations enabled better connection between glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway optimizing carbon flux towards 2PE. However, attempts to further connect these two parts of central carbon metabolism by redirecting fructose-6P towards erythrose-4P by expressing a phosphoketolase-phosphotransacetylase pathway did not result in improved performance. The best performing strains were capable of producing 13mM of 2PE at a yield of 0.113 mol mol-1, which represents the highest yield forde novoproduced 2PE inS. cerevisiaeand other yeast species.

Steroidal compounds are of great interest in the pharmaceutical field, with steroidal drugs as the second largest category of medicine in the world. Advances in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering have enabled de novo biosynthesis of sterols and steroids in yeast, which is a green and safe production route for these valuable steroidal compounds. In this review, we summarize the metabolic engineering strategies developed and employed for improving the de novo biosynthesis of sterols and steroids in yeast based on the regulation mechanisms, and introduce the recent progresses in de novo synthesis of some typical sterols and steroids in yeast. The remaining challenges and future perspectives are also discussed.

Pterostilbene is a derivative of resveratrol with a higher bioavailability and biological activity, which shows antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and antiaging activities. Here, directed evolution and host strain engineering were used to improve the production of pterostilbene in Escherichia coli. First, the heterologous biosynthetic pathway enzymes of pterostilbene, including tyrosine ammonia lyase, p-coumarate: CoA ligase, stilbene synthase, and resveratrol O-methyltransferase, were successively directly evolved through error-prone polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Four mutant enzymes with higher activities of in vivo and in vitro were obtained. The directed evolution of the pathway enzymes increased the pterostilbene production by 13.7-fold. Then, a biosensor-guided genome shuffling strategy was used to improve the availability of the precursor L-tyrosine of the host strain E. coli TYR-30 used for the production of pterostilbene. A shuffled E. coli strain with higher L-tyrosine production was obtained. The shuffled strain harboring the evolved pathway produced 80.04 ± 5.58 mg/l pterostilbene, which is about 2.3-fold the highest titer reported in literatures.

Flavone C-arabinosides/xylosides are plant-originated glycoconjugates with various bioactivities. However, the potential utility of these molecules is hindered by their low abundance in nature. Engineering biosynthesis pathway in heterologous bacterial chassis provides a sustainable source of these C-glycosides. We previously reported bifunctional C-glucosyl/C-arabinosyltransferases in Oryza sativa japonica and O. sativa indica, which influence the C-glycoside spectrum in different rice varieties. In this study, we proved the C-arabinosyltransferring activity of rice C-glycosyltransferases (CGTs) on the mono-C-glucoside substrate nothofagin, followed by taking advantage of specific CGTs and introducing heterologous UDP-pentose supply, to realize the production of eight different C-arabinosides/xylosides in recombinant E. coli. Fed-batch fermentation and precursor supplement maximized the titer of rice-originated C-arabinosides to 20~110 mg/L in an E. coli chassis. The optimized final titer of schaftoside and apigenin di-C-arabinoside reached 19.87 and 113.16 mg/L respectively. We demonstrate here the success of de novo bio-production of C-arabinosylated and C-xylosylated flavones by heterologous pathway reconstitution. These results lay a foundation for further optimal manufacture of complex flavonoid compounds in microbial cell factories.

Aldehydes are a class of highly versatile chemicals that can undergo a wide range of chemical reactions and are in high demand as starting materials for chemical manufacturing. Biologically, fatty aldehydes can be produced from fatty acyl-CoA by the action of fatty acyl-CoA reductases. The aldehydes produced can be further converted enzymatically to other valuable derivatives. Thus, metabolic engineering of microorganisms for biosynthesizing aldehydes and their derivatives could provide an economical and sustainable platform for key aldehyde precursor production and subsequent conversion to various value-added chemicals. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an excellent host for this purpose because it is a robust organism that has been used extensively for industrial biochemical production. However, fatty acyl-CoA-dependent aldehyde-forming enzymes expressed in S. cerevisiae thus far have extremely low activities, hence limiting direct utilization of fatty acyl-CoA as substrate for aldehyde biosynthesis. Toward overcoming this challenge, we successfully engineered an alcohol-forming fatty acyl-CoA reductase for aldehyde production through rational design. We further improved aldehyde production through strain engineering by deleting competing pathways and increasing substrate availability. Subsequently, we demonstrated alkane and alkene production as one of the many possible applications of the aldehyde-producing strain. Overall, by protein engineering of a fatty acyl-CoA reductase to alter its activity and metabolic engineering of S. cerevisiae, we generated strains with the highest reported cytosolic aliphatic aldehyde and alkane/alkene production to date in S. cerevisiae from fatty acyl-CoA.

Aldehydes are a class of highly versatile chemicals that can undergo a wide range of chemical reactions and are in high demand as starting materials for chemical manufacturing. Biologically, fatty aldehydes can be produced from fatty acyl-CoA by the action of fatty acyl-CoA reductases. The aldehydes produced can be further converted enzymatically to other valuable derivatives. Thus, metabolic engineering of microorganisms for biosynthesizing aldehydes and their derivatives could provide an economical and sustainable platform for key aldehyde precursor production and subsequent conversion to various value-added chemicals. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an excellent host for this purpose because it is a robust organism that has been used extensively for industrial biochemical production. However, fatty acyl-CoA-dependent aldehyde-forming enzymes expressed in S. cerevisiae thus far have extremely low activities, hence limiting direct utilization of fatty acyl-CoA as substrate for aldehyde biosynthesis. Toward overcoming this challenge, we successfully engineered an alcohol-forming fatty acyl-CoA reductase for aldehyde production through rational design. We further improved aldehyde production through strain engineering by deleting competing pathways and increasing substrate availability. Subsequently, we demonstrated alkane and alkene production as one of the many possible applications of the aldehyde-producing strain. Overall, by protein engineering of a fatty acyl-CoA reductase to alter its activity and metabolic engineering of S. cerevisiae, we generated strains with the highest reported cytosolic aliphatic aldehyde and alkane/alkene production to date in S. cerevisiae from fatty acyl-CoA.

Fatty acids are essential components of biological membranes, important for the maintenance of cellular structures, especially in organisms with complex life cycles like protozoan parasites. Apicomplexans are obligate parasites responsible for various deadly diseases of humans and livestock. We analyzed the fatty acids produced by the closest phototrophic relatives of parasitic apicomplexans, the chromerids Chromera velia and Vitrella brassicaformis, and investigated the genes coding for enzymes involved in fatty acids biosynthesis in chromerids, in comparison to their parasitic relatives. Based on evidence from genomic and metabolomic data, we propose a model of fatty acid synthesis in chromerids: the plastid-localized FAS-II pathway is responsible for the de novo synthesis of fatty acids reaching the maximum length of 18 carbon units. Short saturated fatty acids (C14:0&ndash, C18:0) originate from the plastid are then elongated and desaturated in the cytosol and the endoplasmic reticulum. We identified giant FAS I-like multi-modular enzymes in both chromerids, which seem to be involved in polyketide synthesis and fatty acid elongation. This full-scale description of the biosynthesis of fatty acids and their derivatives provides important insights into the reductive evolutionary transition of a phototropic algal ancestor to obligate parasites.

Background Pterostilbene, a structural analog of resveratrol, has higher oral bioavailability and bioactivity than that of the parent compound; but is far less abundant in natural sources. Thus, to efficiently obtain this bioactive resveratrol analog, it is necessary to develop new bioproduction systems. Results We identified a resveratrol O-methyltransferase (ROMT) function from a multifunctional caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) originating from Arabidopsis, which catalyzes the transfer of a methyl group to resveratrol resulting in pterostilbene production. In addition, we constructed a biological platform to produce pterostilbene with this ROMT gene. Pterostilbene can be synthesized from intracellular l-tyrosine, which requires the activities of four enzymes: tyrosine ammonia lyase (TAL), p-coumarate:CoA ligase (CCL), stilbene synthase (STS) and resveratrol O-methyltransferase (ROMT). For the efficient production of pterostilbene in E. coli, we used an engineered E. coli strain to increase the intracellular pool of l-tyrosine, which is the initial precursor of pterostilbene. Next, we tried to produce pterostilbene in the engineered E. coli strain using l-methionine containing media, which is used to increase the intracellular pool of S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM). According to this result, pterostilbene production as high as 33.6 ± 4.1 mg/L was achieved, which was about 3.6-fold higher compared with that in the parental E. coli strain harboring a plasmid for pterostilbene biosynthesis. Conclusion As a potential phytonutrient, pterostilbene was successfully produced in E. coli from a glucose medium using a single vector system, and its production titer was also significantly increased using a l-methionine containing medium in combination with a strain that had an engineered metabolic pathway for l-tyrosine. Additionally, we provide insights into the dual functions of COMT from A. thaliana which was characterized as a ROMT enzyme. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12934-017-0644-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

© 2016 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Rapid global industrialization in the past decades has led to extensive utilization of fossil fuels, which resulted in pressing environmental problems due to excessive carbon emission. This prompted increasing interest in developing advanced biofuels with higher energy density to substitute fossil fuels and bio-alkane has gained attention as an ideal drop-in fuel candidate. Production of alkanes in bacteria has been widely studied but studies on the utilization of the robust yeast host, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, for alkane biosynthesis have been lacking. In this proof-of-principle study, we present the unprecedented engineering of S. cerevisiae for conversion of free fatty acids to alkanes. A fatty acid α-dioxygenase from Oryza sativa (rice) was expressed in S. cerevisiae to transform C12–18free fatty acids to C11–17aldehydes. Co-expression of a cyanobacterial aldehyde deformylating oxygenase converted the aldehydes to the desired alkanes. We demonstrated the versatility of the pathway by performing whole-cell biocatalytic conversion of exogenous free fatty acid feedstocks into alkanes as well as introducing the pathway into a free fatty acid overproducer for de novo production of alkanes from simple sugar. The results from this work are anticipated to advance the development of yeast hosts for alkane production. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 232–237. © 2016 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.