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Production of Coenzyme Q10 by microbes: an update

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Abstract

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is the main CoQ species in human and is used extensively in food, cosmetic and medicine industries because of its antioxidant properties and its benefit in prophylactic medicine and therapy for a variety of diseases. Among various approaches to increase the production of CoQ10, microbial fermentation is the most effective. As knowledge of the biosynthetic enzymes and regulatory mechanisms modulating CoQ10 production increases, opportunities arise for metabolic engineering of CoQ10 in microbial hosts. In this review, we present various strategies used up to date to improve CoQ10 production and focus on metabolic engineering of CoQ10 overproduction in microbes. General strategies of metabolic engineering include providing sufficient precursors for CoQ10, increasing metabolic fluxes, and expanding storage capacity for CoQ10. Based on these strategies, CoQ10 production has been significantly improved in natural CoQ10 producers, as well as in heterologous hosts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Research Foundation of Xi’an Medical University (2020DOC17 to J.F.), the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education (21JK0886 to J.F. and 19JK0774 to W.X.), Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Department (2021JQ-774 to J.F., 2019JQ-888 to W.X. and 2019JZ-38 to X.X.), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32070069 to Y.W.).

Funding

Funding was provided by Research Foundation of Xi’an Medical University (2020DOC17), Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education (21JK0886, 19JK0774), Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Department (2021JQ-774, 2019JQ-888, 2019JZ-38), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (32070069).

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Jinbo Fan, Wen Xu and Xi Xu wrote the main manuscirpt text. Jinbo Fan prepared figures and tables. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xi Xu or Yang Wang.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Fan, J., Xu, W., Xu, X. et al. Production of Coenzyme Q10 by microbes: an update. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 38, 194 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-022-03326-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-022-03326-0

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