Establishing a Microbial Platform for Aromatic Lactones Production From Glucose
Shuwei Li1, Tong Wang1, Geng Li1
1College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China.
Biotechnology and Bioengineering
|July 21, 2026
Summary
Researchers engineered microbes for sustainable aromatic lactone production. They developed artificial biosynthetic routes in Escherichia coli, enabling the de novo synthesis of 2-coumaronone and a chemo-enzymatic route for homogentisate-γ-lactone.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Synthetic Biology
- Metabolic Engineering
Background:
- Aromatic lactones possess valuable antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties for pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.
- Current industrial production methods involve inefficient, unsustainable multi-step chemical synthesis or plant extraction.
- Limited understanding of biosynthetic pathways and enzyme functionalities hinders microbial lactone production.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and implement artificial biosynthetic routes for aromatic lactone production in microbial systems.
- To overcome limitations of current production methods by establishing sustainable microbial platforms.
- To enable the de novo biosynthesis of valuable aromatic lactones from simple feedstocks.
Main Methods:
- Engineered Escherichia coli with artificial biosynthetic pathways for aromatic lactone synthesis.
- Systematic screening and engineering of hydroxylases and carboxylic acid reductase (Car) variants for lactonization.
- Metabolic engineering strategies to optimize precursor supply and cofactor availability.
- Development of a chemo-enzymatic approach for homogentisate-γ-lactone production.
Main Results:
- Achieved de novo biosynthesis of 2-coumaronone from glucose using engineered E. coli.
- Successfully developed a chemo-enzymatic strategy for homogentisate-γ-lactone production from glucose.
- Demonstrated a generalizable framework for sustainable microbial synthesis of high-value lactone compounds.
Conclusions:
- Established a viable microbial platform for the sustainable production of aromatic lactones.
- The developed strategies provide a generalizable framework for synthesizing various high-value lactone compounds.
- This work advances the field of synthetic biology for bio-based chemical manufacturing.
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