Engineering of the Mevalonate Biosynthesis Upstream Pathway in Escherichia coli

Isoprenoids,such as artemisinin,paclitaxel andβ-carotene,play an extremely important role in clinical medicine and health care,but synthesizing those compounds by organic chemistry approaches or by purifying them from plants is not only technically difficult,but also cost-consuming.In order to establish the complete isoprenoid metabolic engineering platform,the mevalonate biosynthesis upstream pathway was recombinated in engineered E.coli,which included a acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase,a 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A synthase,and the truncated 3-hydroxy-3-methy]glutaryl coenzyme A reductase.And the mevalonolactone was detected by gas chromatography in the acidic culture samples,which indicated that the engineered three-step pathway could convert the acetyl-CoA to mevalonate.This research could support the next step to construct the complete mevalonate pathway in engineered E.coli.