Complete biosynthesis of anthocyanins using E. coli polycultures

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Authors
Andrew Jones, J.
Vernacchio, Victoria R.
Collins, Shannon M.
Shirke, Abhijit N.
Xiu, Yu
Englaender, Jacob A.
Cress, Brady F.
McCutcheon, Catherine C.
Linhardt, Robert J.
Gross, Richard A.
Issue Date
2017-05-01
Type
Article
Language
ENG
Keywords
Biology , Chemistry and chemical biology , Chemical and biological engineering , Biomedical engineering
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Alternative Title
Abstract
Fermentation-based chemical production strategies provide a feasible route for the rapid, safe, and sustainable production of a wide variety of important chemical products, ranging from fuels to pharmaceuticals. These strategies have yet to find wide industrial utilization due to their inability to economically compete with traditional extraction and chemical production methods. Here, we engineer for the first time the complex microbial biosynthesis of an anthocyanin plant natural product, starting from sugar. This was accomplished through the development of a synthetic, 4-strain Escherichia coli polyculture collectively expressing 15 exogenous or modified pathway enzymes from diverse plants and other microbes. This synthetic consortium-based approach enables the functional expression and connection of lengthy pathways while effectively managing the accompanying metabolic burden. The de novo production of specific anthocyanin molecules, such as calistephin, has been an elusive metabolic engineering target for over a decade. The utilization of our polyculture strategy affords milligram-per-liter production titers. This study also lays the groundwork for significant advances in strain and process design toward the development of cost-competitive biochemical production hosts through nontraditional methodologies.
Description
Complete biosynthesis of anthocyanins using E. coli polycultures
Full Citation
Complete biosynthesis of anthocyanins using E. coli polycultures J. Jones, V. Vernacchio, S. Collins, A.Shirke, Y. Xiu, J. Englaender, B, Cress, C. McCutcheon, R. J. Linhradt, R. Gross, and M. Koffas, mBio, 8, e00621-17, 2017.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
Journal
Volume
Issue
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
21507511
21612129
EISSN