Work

ent -Kaurene, ent -kauran-16-ol, and shunted diterpenoids from an engineered strain of Aspergillus oryzae

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Aspergillus oryzae was engineered to produce high levels of geranylgeranyldiphosphate (GGPP) and ent -kaurene, via ent -copalyl diphosphate, as precursors for future metabolic engineering projects via the expression of ggs2 and cps/ks genes from Gibberella fujikuroi under the control of strong constitutive promoters. GGPP was shunted to three new metabolites that were fully identified by NMR and HRMS. ent -Copalyl diphosphate was shunted to a further seven new compounds that were also identified by NMR and HRMS. The titre of ent -kaurene was significantly increased by heterologous expression of a truncated hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA reductase gene from Avena strigosa (AstHMGR), while replacement of the dual terpene cyclase encoding gene cps/ks with the individual cyclase genes ptmT2 from Streptomyces platensis and Bjks from Bradyrhizobium japonicum resulted mainly in accumulation of ent -copalyl diphosphate-derived shunt products. Finally, ent -kauran-16-ol was biosynthesised by coexpression of ggs2 with the bacterial cyclases ptmT2 and ptmT3 .

Source: RSC Advances

DOI: 10.1039/d6ra05338f

Authors: Ahmed Arafa, Yuechen Jiang, Jennifer Gerke, Jakob Franke, Russell J. Cox

Institutions: Leibniz University Hannover, Tanta University

Language: English

Topic: Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,042

Funders: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, China Scholarship Council, Leibniz-Gemeinschaft