Objectives: To achieve biosynthesis of caffeoylmalic acid from glucose in engineered Escherichia coli.
Results: We constructed the biosynthetic pathway of caffeoylmalic acid in E. coli by co-expression of heterologous genes RgTAL, HpaBC, At4CL2 and HCT2. To enhance the production of caffeoylmalic acid, we optimized the tyrosine metabolic pathway of E. coli to increase the supply of the substrate caffeic acid. Consequently, an E. coli-E. coli co-culture system was used for the efficient production of caffeoylmalic acid. The final titer of caffeoylmalic acid reached 570.1 mg/L.
Conclusions: Microbial production of caffeoylmalic acid using glucose has application potential. In addition, microbial co-culture is an efficient tool for producing caffeic acid esters.
Keywords: Biosynthesis; Caffeoylmalic acid; Escherichia coli; Microbial co-culture.