Synthesis of Methylated Anthranilate Derivatives Using Engineered Strains of .

Anthranilate derivatives have been used as flavoring and fragrant agents for a long time. Recently, these compounds are gaining attention due to new biological functions including antinociceptive and analgesic activities. Three anthranilate derivatives, -methylanthranilate, methyl anthranilate, and methyl -methylanthranilate were synthesized using metabolically engineered stains of . encoding -methyltransferase from , encoding anthraniloyl-coenzyme A (CoA):methanol acyltransferase from , and encoding anthranilate coenzyme A ligase from were cloned and strains harboring these genes were used to synthesize the three desired compounds. mutants (, , mutants), which provide more anthranilate and/or -adenosyl methionine, were used to increase the production of the synthesized compounds. MS/MS analysis was used to determine the structure of the products. Approximately, 185.3 μM -methylanthranilate and 95.2 μM methyl -methylanthranilate were synthesized. This is the first report about the synthesis of anthranilate derivatives in .