Establishment of strigolactone-producing bacterium-yeast consortium

Area of Science:

• Plant Biology
• Biotechnology
• Microbiology

Background:

• Strigolactones (SLs) are crucial plant hormones regulating growth and development.
• Limited availability of SLs hinders research and practical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a microbial biosynthetic platform for producing various strigolactones.
• To enable functional identification of plant strigolactone biosynthetic enzymes.
• To establish a foundation for microbial production of strigolactones.

Main Methods:

• Engineered consortia of *Escherichia coli* and *Saccharomyces cerevisiae* for SL biosynthesis.
• Synthesis of carlactone, carlactonoic acid, 5-deoxystrigol (5DS), 4-deoxyorobanchol, and orobanchol (OB).
• Functional characterization of plant CYP722C enzymes within the microbial platform.
• Pathway engineering to enhance 5DS production.

Main Results:

• Successfully established a microbial platform producing multiple SLs, including 5DS (6.65 μg/liter) and OB (19.36 μg/liter).
• Identified functions of plant CYP722Cs as OB or 5DS synthases.
• Achieved a 5DS titer enhancement to 47.3 μg/liter through pathway engineering.

Conclusions:

• The microbial platform provides a versatile system for studying SL biosynthesis and evolution.
• This work lays the groundwork for developing scalable microbial production processes for strigolactones.