Semi-rational design and modification of phosphoketolase to improve the yield of tyrosol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

• DOI: 10.1016/j.synbio.2024.11.007
• Publication Date: 2024-11-26T22:39:20Z
• Authors: Na Song; Huili Xia; Yaoru Xie; Shuaikang Guo; Rong Zhou; Lingling Shangguan; Kun Zhuang; Huiyan Zhang; Feiran An; Xueyun Zheng; Lan Yao; Shihui Yang; Xiong Chen; Jun Dai
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Phosphoketolase; QH301-705.5; Tyrosol; d-Erythrose 4-phosphate; Original Research Article; Biology (General); TP248.13-248.65; PHK pathway; Biotechnology

Tyrosol is an important component of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and cosmetics, and their biosynthetic pathways are currently a hot research topic. d-Erythrose 4-phosphate is a key precursor for the biosynthesis of tyrosol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Hence, the flux of d-Erythrose 4-phosphate determined the yield of tyrosol synthesis. In this study, we first obtained an S. cerevisiae strain S19 with a tyrosol yield of 247.66 mg/L by metabolic engineering strategy. To increase the production of d-Erythrose 4-phosphate, highly active phosphoketolase BA-C was obtained by bioinformatics combined with tyrosol yield assay. The key residue sites 183, 217, and 320 were obtained by molecular docking, kinetic simulation, and tyrosol yield verification. After mutation, the highly efficient phosphoketolase BA-C(His320Met) was obtained, with a 37.32 % increase in enzyme activity. The tyrosol production of strain S26 with BA-C(His320Arg) increased by 43.05 % than strain S25 with BA-C and increased by 151.19 % compared with the strain S19 without phosphoketolase in a 20 L fermenter. The mining and modification of phosphoketolase will provide strong support for the de novo synthesis of aromatic compounds.