Plants produce a stunning diversity of terpenoids, many of which have potential uses as fuels or pharmaceuticals. The expression in bacteria and yeast of the plant enzymes necessary to produce these molecules promises to dramatically reduce the cost of their production. Researchers have made significant progress in improving the titer, yield, and productivity of terpenoids in E. coli and S. cerevisiae cultures. Production of valuable molecules in photosynthetic cyanobacteria combines easy genetic modifications with photosynthetic capability that avoids the requirement to provide sugars as substrate. However, researchers have had limited success producing terpenoids in cyanobacteria, typically achieving titers orders of magnitude less than what has been achieved in E. coli and S. cerevisiae. We utilize tools for ribosome binding site design and codon optimization to improve enzyme expression and increase production of the sesquiterpenoid α-bisabolene, a precursor to bisabolane, which has combustion properties similar to diesel, in the cyanobacteria Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

Metabolic engineering of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 for improved terpenoid production: Ribosome binding sites and codon optimization

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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