A tripartite microbial co-culture system for de novo biosynthesis of diverse plant phenylpropanoids

Sierra M. Brooks, Celeste Marsan, Kevin B. Reed, Shuo-Fu Yuan, Dustin-Dat Nguyen, Adit Trivedi, Gokce Altin-Yavuzarslan, Nathan Ballinger, Alshakim Nelson and Hal S. Alper ()
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Sierra M. Brooks: The University of Texas at Austin
Celeste Marsan: The University of Texas at Austin
Kevin B. Reed: The University of Texas at Austin
Shuo-Fu Yuan: The University of Texas at Austin
Dustin-Dat Nguyen: The University of Texas at Austin
Adit Trivedi: The University of Texas at Austin
Gokce Altin-Yavuzarslan: University of Washington
Nathan Ballinger: University of Washington
Alshakim Nelson: University of Washington
Hal S. Alper: The University of Texas at Austin

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Plant-derived phenylpropanoids, in particular phenylpropenes, have diverse industrial applications ranging from flavors and fragrances to polymers and pharmaceuticals. Heterologous biosynthesis of these products has the potential to address low, seasonally dependent yields hindering ease of widespread manufacturing. However, previous efforts have been hindered by the inherent pathway promiscuity and the microbial toxicity of key pathway intermediates. Here, in this study, we establish the propensity of a tripartite microbial co-culture to overcome these limitations and demonstrate to our knowledge the first reported de novo phenylpropene production from simple sugar starting materials. After initially designing the system to accumulate eugenol, the platform modularity and downstream enzyme promiscuity was leveraged to quickly create avenues for hydroxychavicol and chavicol production. The consortia was found to be compatible with Engineered Living Material production platforms that allow for reusable, cold-chain-independent distributed manufacturing. This work lays the foundation for further deployment of modular microbial approaches to produce plant secondary metabolites.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40242-9

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