title: Engineering Escherichia coli for efficient production of 5-aminolevulinic acid from glucose.
abstract: 5-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA) recently received much attention due to its potential applications in many fields. In this study, we developed a metabolic strategy to produce ALA directly from glucose in recombinant Escherichia coli via the C5 pathway. The expression of a mutated hemA gene, encoding a glutamyl-tRNA reductase from Salmonella arizona, significantly improved ALA production from 31.1 to 176mg/L. Glutamate-1-semialdehyde aminotransferase from E. coli was found to have a synergistic effect with HemA(M) from S. arizona on ALA production (2052mg/L). In addition, we identified a threonine/homoserine exporter in E. coli, encoded by rhtA gene, which exported ALA due to its broad substrate specificity. The constructed E. coli DALA produced 4.13g/L ALA in modified minimal medium from glucose without adding any other co-substrate or inhibitor. This strategy offered an attractive potential to metabolic production of ALA in E. coli.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Jinan, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Pengfei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qingsheng
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Qi
mesh_terms: D000445:Aldehyde Oxidoreductases / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D000622:Aminolevulinic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D005947:Glucose / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009154:Mutation; D030781:Organisms, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D012476:Salmonella arizonae / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D000622:Aminolevulinic Acid; D000445:Aldehyde Oxidoreductases; C067282:glutamyl tRNA reductase; D005947:Glucose