De Novo Pterostilbene Production from Glucose Using Modular Coculture Engineering in Escherichia coli

Pterostilbene, a derivative of resveratrol, is of increasing interest due to its increased bioavailability and potential health benefits. Sustainable production of pterostilbene is important, especially given the challenges of traditional plant extraction and chemical synthesis methods. While engineered microbial cell factories provide a potential alternative for pterostilbene production, most approaches necessitate feeding intermediate compounds. To address these limitations, we adopted a modular coculture engineering strategy, dividing the pterostilbene biosynthetic pathway between two engineered E. coli strains. Using a combination of gene knockout, atmospheric and room-temperature plasma mutagenesis, and error-prone PCR-based whole genome shuffling to engineer strains for the coculture system, we achieved a pterostilbene production titer of 134.84 ± 9.28 mg/L from glucose using a 1:3 inoculation ratio and 0.1% dimethyl sulfoxide supplementation. This represents the highest reported de novo production titer. Our results underscore the potential of coculture systems and metabolic balance in microbial biosynthesis.