Modular Engineering of <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> for De Novo Biosynthesis of Genistein

Genistein, a nutraceutical isoflavone, has various pharmaceutical and biological activities which benefit human health via soy-containing food intake. This study aimed to construct <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> to produce genistein from sugar via a modular engineering strategy. In the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yonghui Meng, Xue Liu, Lijuan Zhang, Guang-Rong Zhao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-07-01
Series:Microorganisms
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/10/7/1402
Description
Summary:Genistein, a nutraceutical isoflavone, has various pharmaceutical and biological activities which benefit human health via soy-containing food intake. This study aimed to construct <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> to produce genistein from sugar via a modular engineering strategy. In the midstream module, various sources of chalcone synthases and chalcone isomerase-like proteins were tested which enhanced the naringenin production from <i>p</i>-coumaric acid by decreasing the formation of the byproduct. The upstream module was reshaped to enhance the metabolic flux to <i>p</i>-coumaric acid from glucose by overexpressing the genes in the tyrosine biosynthetic pathway and deleting the competing genes. The downstream module was rebuilt to produce genistein from naringenin by pairing various isoflavone synthases and cytochrome P450 reductases. The optimal pair was used for the de novo biosynthesis of genistein with a titer of 31.02 mg/L from sucrose at 25 °C. This is the first report on the de novo biosynthesis of genistein in engineered <i>S. cerevisiae</i> to date. This work shows promising potential for producing flavonoids and isoflavonoids by modular metabolic engineering.
ISSN:2076-2607