Lin Ping, Zhang Linpei, Du Guocheng, Chen Jian, Zhang Juan, Peng Zheng
Science Center for Future Foods, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi 214122, China.
Key Laboratory of Industrial Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Road, Wuxi 214122, China.
J Agric Food Chem. 2025 Apr 16;73(15):9187-9196. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5c00088. Epub 2025 Apr 1.
Carotenoids and apocarotenoids, natural compounds with vital biological functions, are now sustainably produced via microbial synthesis as an eco-friendly alternative to inefficient and polluting traditional plant-based extraction methods. In their biosynthesis, β-carotene (BC) plays a crucial role as it is the key intermediate from which different downstream derivatives are formed. Here, we engineered a high-producing platform strain to produce BC through a combination of systematic metabolic engineering and atmospheric and room temperature plasma mutagenesis. The strain achieved a BC production of 2.09 g/L via fed-batch fermentation in a 5-L bioreactor, the highest yield reported in to date. Using this platform strain, we constructed zeaxanthin- and β-ionone-producing strains by introducing key enzyme genes. The engineered strains produced 39.09 mg/L of zeaxanthin and 31.87 mg/L of β-ionone in shake-flask cultures. The engineered BC platform established in this study provides a higher starting point for producing diverse BC derivatives.
