Enhancing β-Elemene Production in <i>Escherichia coli</i> via Protein Scaffold-Mediated Co-Localization of Key Enzymes
β-Elemene, a sesquiterpene with anticancer activity, faces limited microbial production due to low yields and inefficient enzyme coordination. This study established a modular covalent enzyme cascade in <i>Escherichia coli</i> for high-efficiency β-elemene biosynthesis. Systematic screening identified the SnoopTag/SnoopCatcher-mediated covalent assembly of farnesyl diphosphate synthase and germacrene A synthase as the optimal configuration (strain FS07). Subsequent enzyme stoichiometry modulation or linker engineering did not surpass FS07's performance, indicating a near-optimal design. Fermentation optimization elevated the β-elemene titer to 7.21 g/L in FS07. Fed-batch fermentation in a 1.3 L bioreactor subsequently increased the final titer to 31.21 g/L, representing a 4-fold improvement over scaffold-free controls and achieving the highest reported yield in <i>E. coli</i> to date. This work provided a robust enzymatic scaffolding strategy for high-level terpenoid production.
Authors
- Xiaodong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2348-926X)
- Yong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2179-3698)
- Zefeng Li
- Yihua Lu
- Mengyu Jiang
- Yingchun Zhou
Institutions
- Nanjing Forestry University (CN)
- Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Synthetic Biology
- Published
- 2026-02-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.5c00798
- Primary Topic
- Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00