Journal Article

De novo production of the flavonoid naringenin in engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Beekwilder, Jules, van Houwelingen, Adele, Pronk, Jack T, Hall, Robert D, van Maris, Antonius JA, Crimi, Barbara, Daran, Jean-Marc, Koopman, Frank, Bosch, Dirk

2012

Overview

Background Flavonoids comprise a large family of secondary plant metabolic intermediates that exhibit a wide variety of antioxidant and human health-related properties. Plant production of flavonoids is limited by the low productivity and the complexity of the recovered flavonoids. Thus to overcome these limitations, metabolic engineering of specific pathway in microbial systems have been envisaged to produce high quantity of a single molecules. Result Saccharomyces cerevisiae was engineered to produce the key intermediate flavonoid, naringenin, solely from glucose. For this, specific naringenin biosynthesis genes from Arabidopsis thaliana were selected by comparative expression profiling and introduced in S. cerevisiae. The sole expression of these A. thaliana genes yielded low extracellular naringenin concentrations (<5.5 μM). To optimize naringenin titers, a yeast chassis strain was developed. Synthesis of aromatic amino acids was deregulated by alleviating feedback inhibition of 3-deoxy-d-arabinose-heptulosonate-7-phosphate synthase (Aro3, Aro4) and byproduct formation was reduced by eliminating phenylpyruvate decarboxylase (Aro10, Pdc5, Pdc6). Together with an increased copy number of the chalcone synthase gene and expression of a heterologous tyrosine ammonia lyase, these modifications resulted in a 40-fold increase of extracellular naringenin titers (to approximately 200 μM) in glucose-grown shake-flask cultures. In aerated, pH controlled batch reactors, extracellular naringenin concentrations of over 400 μM were reached. Conclusion The results reported in this study demonstrate that S. cerevisiae is capable of de novo production of naringenin by coexpressing the naringenin production genes from A. thaliana and optimization of the flux towards the naringenin pathway. The engineered yeast naringenin production host provides a metabolic chassis for production of a wide range of flavonoids and exploration of their biological functions.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: 3-Deoxy-7-Phosphoheptulonate Synthase - antagonists & inhibitors / 3-Deoxy-7-Phosphoheptulonate Synthase - metabolism / Acids / Acyltransferases - genetics / Acyltransferases - metabolism / Amino acids / Ammonia / Ammonia-Lyases - genetics / Ammonia-Lyases - metabolism / Antioxidants / Applied Microbiology / Arabidopsis - enzymology / Arabidopsis - genetics / Arabidopsis thaliana / Aromatics / Batch reactors / Biology / Bioreactors / Biosynthesis / Biotechnology / Carbon / Carboxy-Lyases - antagonists & inhibitors / Carboxy-Lyases - metabolism / Cell culture / Chemistry / Chemistry and Materials Science / Comparative analysis / copy number / de novo / Dextrose / E coli / Enzymes / Enzymology / Feedback inhibition / Flavanones - biosynthesis / Flavonoids / Flavonoids - biosynthesis / Genetic Engineering / Genetically engineered microorganisms / Genetics / Glucose / Isoflavones / Metabolic Engineering / Metabolites / Microbial Genetics and Genomics / Microbiology / Naringenin / Naringenin-chalcone synthase / pH effects / Phenylpyruvate decarboxylase / Phosphates / Physiological aspects / Plant production / Plant Proteins - genetics / Plant Proteins - metabolism / Proteins / Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Saccharomyces cerevisiae - metabolism / Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins - antagonists & inhibitors / Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins - genetics / Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins - metabolism / Systems biotechnology and metabolic engineering / Tyrosine / Yeast / Yeasts