Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for limonene and perillyl alcohol production

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Jorge Alonso-Gutierrez
  • Rossana Chan
  • Batth, Tanveer Singh
  • Paul D Adams
  • Jay D Keasling
  • Christopher J Petzold
  • Taek Soon Lee
Limonene is a valuable monoterpene used in the production of several commodity chemicals and medicinal compounds. Among them, perillyl alcohol (POH) is a promising anti-cancer agent that can be produced by hydroxylation of limonene. We engineered E. coli with a heterologous mevalonate pathway and limonene synthase for production of limonene followed by coupling with a cytochrome P450, which specifically hydroxylates limonene to produce POH. A strain containing all mevalonate pathway genes in a single plasmid produced limonene at titers over 400mg/L from glucose, substantially higher than has been achieved in the past. Incorporation of a cytochrome P450 to hydroxylate limonene yielded approximately 100mg/L of POH. Further metabolic engineering of the pathway and in situ product recovery using anion exchange resins would make this engineered E. coli a potential production platform for any valuable limonene derivative.
Original languageEnglish
JournalMetabolic Engineering
Volume19
Pages (from-to)33-41
Number of pages9
ISSN1096-7176
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sep 2013
Externally publishedYes

ID: 68162550