Metabolic engineering of Phaeodactylum tricornutum for heterologous production of the plant triterpenoid friedelin.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Friedelin is a pharmacologically valuable pentacyclic triterpenoid with anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiviral, and antiobesity properties. Conventional methods of friedelin production rely on solvent-intensive extraction from plant biomass, which is often expensive, inefficient, and environmentally unsustainable. Phaeodactylum tricornutum, a model marine diatom with a unique chimeric sterol biosynthetic pathway and native oxidosqualene accumulation, presents a promising platform for heterologous triterpenoid biosynthesis.

Results

In this study, the TwOSC4 gene from Tripterygium wilfordii, which encodes friedelin synthase, was successfully expressed in P. tricornutum via biolistic transformation. As a result, two transgenic strains, Pt-OSC4-20 and Pt-OSC4-48, we

SUBMITTER: Nguyen K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12781446 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature