Engineering the unicellular alga Phaeodactylum tricornutum for high-value plant triterpenoid production.

ABSTRACT: Plant triterpenoids constitute a diverse class of organic compounds that play a major role in development, plant defence and environmental interaction. Several triterpenes have demonstrated potential as pharmaceuticals. One example is betulin, which has shown promise as a pharmaceutical precursor for the treatment of certain cancers and HIV. Major challenges for triterpenoid commercialization include their low production levels and their cost-effective purification from the complex mixtures present in their natural hosts. Therefore, attempts to produce these compounds in industrially relevant microbial systems such as bacteria and yeasts have attracted great interest. Here, we report the production of the triterpenes betulin and its precursor lupeol in the photosynthetic diatom Phaeodactyl

SUBMITTER: D'Adamo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6330534 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature