Engineering Microbial Cells for the Biosynthesis of Natural Compounds of Pharmaceutical Significance

Figure 1

Benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic pathway reconstructed in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For in vivo production of (S)-reticuline, transgenic E. coli expresses biosynthetic genes MAO, NCS, 6OMT, CNMT, and 4′OMT. For in vivo production of (S)-scoulerine and magnoflorine from reticuline originating from engineered E. coli, transgenic S. cerevisiae expresses, respectively, the genes BBE, CYP80G2 and CNMT. All genes are from Coptis japonica except the gene MAO which originates from Micrococcus luteus. MAO: monoamine oxidase; NCS: norcoclaurine synthase; 6OMT: norcoclaurine 6-O-methyltransferase; CNMT: coclaurine-N-methyltransferase; 4′OMT: 3′-hydroxy-N-methylcoclaurine-4′-O-methyltransferase; BBE: berberine bridge enzyme; CYP80G2: P450 corytuberine synthase.