Metabolic engineering of the shikimate pathway in Amycolatopsis strains for optimized glycopeptide antibiotic production

Animating insights into the biosynthesis of glycopeptide antibiotics

The realm of natural product (NP) research is constantly expanding, with diverse applications in both medicine and industry. In this interdisciplinary field, scientists collaborate to investigate various aspects of NPs, including understanding the mode of action of these compounds, unraveling their biosynthetic pathways, studying evolutionary aspects, and biochemically characterizing the enzymes involved. However, this collaboration can be challenging as all parties involved come from very different backgrounds (such as microbiology, synthetic chemistry, biochemistry, or bioinformatics) and may not use the same terminology. Fortunately, contemporary technologies, such as videos, provide novel avenues for effective engagement. Recognizing the potency of visual stimuli in explaining complex processes, we envision a future where animations become more and more common in interdisciplinary communication, accompanying perspectives, and reviews. To demonstrate how such approaches can enhance the understanding of complex processes, we have animated the biosynthesis of the glycopeptide antibiotic vancomycin (https://youtu.be/TGAgC4c8hvo).

High titer production of gastrodin enabled by systematic refactoring of yeast genome and an antisense-transcriptional regulation toolkit

Gastrodin, a phenolic glycoside, is a prominent component of Gastrodia elata, which is renowned for its sedative, hypnotic, anticonvulsant, and neuroprotective activities. Engineering heterologous production of plant natural products in microbial host represents a safe, cost-effective, and scalable alternative to plant extraction. Here, we present the construction of an engineered Yarrowia lipolytica yeast that achieves a high-titer production of gastrodin. We systematically refactored the yeast genome by enhancing the flux of the shikimate pathway and optimizing the glucosyl transfer system. We introduced more than five dozen of genetic modifications onto the yeast genome, including enzyme screening, alleviation of rate-limiting steps, promoter selection, genomic integration site optimization, downregulation of competing pathways, and elimination of gastrodin degradation. Meanwhile, we developed a Copper-induced Antisense-Transcriptional Regulation (CATR) tool. The developed CATR toolkit achieved dynamic repression and activation of violacein synthesis through the addition of copper in Y. lipolytica. This strategy was further used to dynamically regulate the pyruvate kinase node to effectively redirect glycolytic flux towards the shikimate pathway while maintaining cell growth at proper rate. Taken together, these efforts resulted in 9477.1 mg/L of gastrodin in shaking flaks and 13.4 g/L of gastrodin with a yield of 0.149 g/g glucose in a 5-L bioreactor, highlighting the potential for large-scale and sustainable production of gastrodin from microbial fermentation.