Abstract
Blakeslea trispora is used commercially to produce β-carotene. Isopentenyl pyrophosphate isomerase (IPI) and geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase (GGPS) are key enzymes in the biosynthesis of carotenoids. The cDNAs of genes ipi and carG were cloned from the fungus and expressed in Escherichia coli. Greater GGPS activity was needed in the engineered E. coli when IPP activity was increased. The introduction of GGPS and IPI increased the β-carotene content in E. coli from 0.5 to 0.95 mg/g dry wt.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Misawa (Ishikawa Prefectural University, Ishikawa, Japan) for providing plasmid pACCAR16ΔcrtX and Dr. Kawamukai (Shimane University, Matsue, Japan) for providing plasmid pACCAR25ΔcrtE. This work was supported in part by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20976009 and 21176018).
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Jie Sun and Xin-Xiao Sun have contributed equally to this study.
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Sun, J., Sun, XX., Tang, PW. et al. Molecular cloning and functional expression of two key carotene synthetic genes derived from Blakeslea trispora into E. coli for increased β-carotene production. Biotechnol Lett 34, 2077–2082 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-012-1004-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-012-1004-6