Rational design and construction of an overproducing shikimic acid Escherichia coli by metabolic engineering
理性设计和构建过量合成莽草酸的大肠杆菌代谢工程菌

Shikimic acid (SA), as a hydroaromatic intermediate in the common pathway of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis, is the starting material for the synthesis of neuraminidase inhibitors and other useful compounds. The fermentative production of SA by metabolically engineered microorganisms is an excellent alternative to the extraction from fruits of the Illicium plant. In this study, Escherichia coli was metabolically engineered by rational design and genetic manipulation for fermentative production of SA. First, blocking the aromatic amino acid pathway after the production of SA was carried out by deletion of aroL and aroK genes encoding SA kinase. Second, the ptsG gene encoding protein EIICBglc were removed in the aroL/aroK mutant strain to make the phosphotransferase system (PTS) system default. In the resulting strain, the phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent PTS pathway, a main pathway for glucose transport, were replaced by ATP-dependent GalP (galactose permease). Thus, more PEP flux was used to produce SA as a critical precursor of SA. Furthermore, ydiB gene (encoding quinic acid/SA dehydrogenase) was deleted to prevent SA precursors of 3-dehyroquinic acid into the byproduct of quinic acid. Thus, the engineered strain with four genes deletion was constructed and 576 mg/L SA was produced in the shake flask fermentation. Results show that SA produciton was increased 90 times compared to the parent strain E. coli CICIM B0013.