title: A kinetic model for curcumin production in Escherichia coli.
abstract: Curcumin is a natural compound obtained from turmeric, and is well known for its pharmacological effects. In this work, we design a heterologous pathway for industrial production of curcumin in Escherichia coli. A kinetic model of the pathway is then developed and connected to a kinetic model of the central carbon metabolism of E. coli. This model is used for optimization of the mutant strain through a rational design approach, and two manipulation targets are identified for overexpression. Dynamic simulations are then performed to compare the curcumin production profiles of the different mutant strains. Our results show that it is possible to obtain a significant improvement in the curcumin production rates with the proposed mutants. The kinetic model here developed can be an important framework to optimize curcumin production at an industrial scale and add value to its biomedical potential.
authors.affiliation: Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal. Electronic address: dmachado@deb.uminho.pt.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.affiliation: Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal. Electronic address: lrmr@deb.uminho.pt.
authors.forename: Lígia R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.affiliation: Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal. Electronic address: irocha@deb.uminho.pt.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rocha
mesh_terms: D003474:Curcumin / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009154:Mutation
chemical_list: D003474:Curcumin
keywords: Escherichia coli; Kinetic modeling; Metabolic engineering