Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Vol.186, No.3, 525-534, 2018
Analysis of Novel Antioxidant Sesquarterpenes (C-35 Terpenes) Produced in Recombinant Corynebacterium glutamicum
Novel synthetic isoprenoids have been synthesized in engineered microbial hosts by evolving terpene synthase or expressing heterologous terpene synthases. Recently, the native operon, crtN(a)N(c)M derived from Planococcus sp. PAMC 21323, has isolated for potential industrial applications of C-35 carotenoids. For the first time, novel C-35 carotenoids (sesquarterpene) were synthesized in Corynebacterium glutamicum expressing the crtN(a)N(c)M genes. The recombinant strains accumulate various sesquarterpene including 4-apolycopene (red color), 4-aponeurosporene (yellow color), and no pigmentation, depending on the expression of the genetic elements of the crtN(a)N(c)M genes. Subsequently, the carotenoid extract from the cells harboring pCES-H36-CrtN(a)N(c)M was analyzed, resulting in significantly higher antioxidant activity than those of other strains harboring pCES-H36-CrtN(c)M and pCES-H36-CrtN(a)N(c), respectively. This study will promote further engineering of C. glutamicum to increase sesquarterpene productions.