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A novel process for obtaining phenylpropanoic acid precursor using Escherichia coli with a constitutive expression system

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Abstract

Phenylpropanoids are widely used in food supplements, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics with diverse benefits to human health. Trans-cinnamic acid or p-coumaric acid is usually used as the starting precursor to produce phenylpropanoids. Synthetic bioengineering of microbial cell factories offers a sustainable and flexible alternative method for obtaining these compounds. In this study, a constitutive expression system consisting of Rhodotorula glutinis phenylalanine/tyrosine ammonia lyase was developed to produce a phenylpropanoic acid precursor in Escherichia coli. To improve trans-cinnamic acid and p-coumaric acid production, BioBrick optimization was investigated, causing a 7.2- and 14.2-fold increase in the yield of these compounds, respectively. The optimum strain was capable of de novo producing 78.81 mg/L of trans-cinnamic acid and 34.67 mg/L of p-coumaric acid in a shake flask culture. The work presented here paves the way for the development of a sustainable and economical process for microbial production of a phenylpropanoic acid precursor.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, College of Food Science and Institute of Food Biotechnology, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Jing-long Liang, Liqiong Guo, Ping Sun, Junfang Lin & Weixiong Guo

  2. Joint Research & Development Center for Natural Products of Alchemy Biotechnology Co. Ltd. and South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Jing-long Liang, Liqiong Guo, Ping Sun, Junfang Lin & Weixiong Guo

  3. Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, USA

    Binghua Jiang

  4. College of Informatics, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Hua Wan

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  1. Jing-long Liang
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  2. Liqiong Guo
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  3. Ping Sun
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  4. Binghua Jiang
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  7. Hua Wan
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Correspondence to Junfang Lin.

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Liang, Jl., Guo, L., Sun, P. et al. A novel process for obtaining phenylpropanoic acid precursor using Escherichia coli with a constitutive expression system. Food Sci Biotechnol 25, 795–801 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-016-0134-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-016-0134-3

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