Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of cinnamaldehyde. Issue 1 (December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bang, Hyun; Lee, Yoon; Kim, Sun; Sung, Chang; Jeong, Ki
• Is Part Of: Microbial cell factories. Volume 15:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 12
• Publication Date: 2016-12
• Subjects: Escherichia coli -- Cinnamaldehyde -- l-Phenylalanine -- Metabolic engineering -- Nematodes; Microbial biotechnology -- Periodicals; Recombinant proteins -- Synthesis -- Periodicals; 660.62
• DOI: 10.1186/s12934-016-0415-9
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1475-2859

Abstract

Abstract Background Plant parasitic nematodes are harmful to agricultural crops and plants, and may cause severe yield losses. Cinnamaldehyde, a volatile, yellow liquid commonly used as a flavoring or food additive, is increasingly becoming a popular natural nematicide because of its high nematicidal activity and, there is a high demand for the development of a biological platform to produce cinnamaldehyde. Results We engineeredEscherichia coli as an eco-friendly biological platform for the production of cinnamaldehyde. InE. coli, cinnamaldehyde can be synthesized from intracellularl -phenylalanine, which requires the activities of three enzymes: phenylalanine-ammonia lyase (PAL), 4-coumarate:CoA ligase (4CL), and cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR). For the efficient production of cinnamaldehyde inE. coli, we first examined the activities of enzymes from different sources and a gene expression system for the selected enzymes was constructed. Next, the metabolic pathway forl -phenylalanine biosynthesis was engineered to increase the intracellular pool ofl -phenylalanine, which is a main precursor of cinnamaldehyde. Finally, we tried to produce cinnamaldehyde with the engineeredE. coli . According to this result, cinnamaldehyde production as high as 75 mg/L could be achieved, which was about 35-fold higher compared with that in the parentalE. coli W3110 harboring a plasmid for cinnamaldehyde biosynthesis. We also confirmed that cinnamaldehyde produced by our engineeredE. coli had a nematicidal activity similar to the activity of commercial cinnamaldehyde by nematicidal assays againstBursaphelenchus xylophilus . Conclusion As a potential natural pesticide, cinnamaldehyde was successfully produced inE. coli by construction of the biosynthesis pathway and, its production titer was also significantly increased by engineering the metabolic pathway ofl -phenylalanine.