Construction of an umbelliferone-producing strain

Abstract:

[Background] Umbelliferone, a compound of the coumarin family, demonstrates the medical value in a wide scope and is important raw material for industrial products. Due to the high cost of extraction from plants, more efficient methods for producing umbelliferone remain to be developed. [Objective] To heterogeneously produce umbelliferone by microorganisms. [Methods] In this study, the genes for the synthesis of coumarins were assembled from different plants. Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as the expression host in which the metabolic pathway of tyrosine was modified. We then introduced the assembled genes to S. cerevisiae. [Results] The strain producing umbelliferone was successfully obtained, which showed the umbelliferone titer of (67.39±4.87) μg/mL. [Conclusion] The strains producing natural products of coumarins could be constructed via integration of the biosynthetic genes.

Key words:coumarins;umbelliferone;biosynthesis;expression gene