Biotransforming Phenylpropanoids derived from Biorefining: a Toolkit Approach

源自生物精炼的生物转化苯丙素：工具包方法

• 批准号: BB/I005358/2
• 负责人: Robert Edwards
• 金额: $ 5.88万
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2014 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FI005358%2F2
• 关键词: Biotransforming; Phenylpropanoids; derived; Biorefining; Toolkit

The use of plants as renewable feedstocks to replace petrochemicals requires similar levels of efficiency in terms of refining and recovery of useful products. In biofuel production, which is currently the most advanced refining applied to recover platform chemical from plant biomass, a considerable amount of material is non-fermentable and remains as a low value by-product at the end of the process. Fractionating this residue and adding value to its components would enhance the efficiency economics and ultimately sustainability of biorefining. One relatively abundant and easily recoverable chemical in the non-fermented material is the secondary metabolite ferulic acid, a phenylpropanoid (PP) used extensively in plants for making biologically active polyphenolic compounds. In this project we propose to use ferulic acid and other PPs as precursors to produce dihydrochalcones and their glycosylated derivatives through fermentation in metabolically engineered yeast. These dihydrochalcones are widely used as artificial sweetners and flavour masking agents in the food industry and are currently made by non-chemical transformation methods. In our process, we will reconstruct pathways which function to produce polyphenolics in plants and engineer them into yeast, which on feeding with PPs will then produce these artificial flavouring agents through a sustainable biological process. As artificial flavouring agents, the use of genetic modification to produce these compounds will not affect their market value, as they are not 'natural' products. Furthermore, the modular assembly of our engineered pathway and the feeding of specific PP pre-cursors gives us the potential to produce novel dihydrochalcones which have the potential to be developed into new flavour enhancing products for the food industry. The programme therefore will therefore add value to existing fermentation processes which utilise plant material. In addition the process would also be highly compatible with processes aimed at deconstructing lignin, which is a major non-fermentable product derived from woody biomass composed of PP intermediates. Thus the project is both of immediate utility and establishes useful technologies of longer term value to the biorefining industries which have identified lignin deconstruction and the use of the respective products as a major future commercial opportunity.

使用植物作为可再生原料来取代石油化工产品，需要在提炼和回收有用产品方面达到类似的效率水平。在生物燃料生产中，这是目前应用于从植物生物质中回收平台化学品的最先进的精炼，相当数量的材料是不可发酵的，并且在过程结束时作为低价值的副产品保留。分离这些残渣并增加其成分的价值将提高生物精炼的效率、经济性和最终的可持续性。非发酵材料中一种相对丰富且易于回收的化学物质是次级代谢物阿魏酸，其是一种广泛用于植物中以制备生物活性多酚化合物的苯丙素（PP）。在本项目中，我们建议使用阿魏酸和其他PP作为前体，通过在代谢工程酵母中发酵来生产二氢查耳酮及其糖基化衍生物。这些二氢查耳酮广泛用作食品工业中的人工甜味剂和掩味剂，目前通过非化学转化方法制备。在我们的过程中，我们将重建在植物中产生多酚的途径，并将其改造成酵母，然后通过可持续的生物过程，用PP喂养酵母，生产这些人工调味剂。作为人造调味剂，使用基因改造生产这些化合物不会影响其市场价值，因为它们不是“天然”产品。此外，我们的工程化途径的模块化组装和特定PP前体的进料使我们有可能生产新的二氢查耳酮，这些二氢查耳酮有可能被开发成食品工业的新风味增强产品。因此，该计划将为利用植物材料的现有发酵工艺增加价值。此外，该方法还将与旨在解构木质素的方法高度相容，木质素是衍生自由PP中间体组成的木质生物质的主要不可发酵产物。因此，该项目既具有直接实用性，又为生物精炼行业建立了具有长期价值的有用技术，该行业已将木质素解构和相应产品的使用确定为未来的主要商业机会。

项目成果

Structural evidence for Arabidopsis glutathione transferase AtGSTF2 functioning as a transporter of small organic ligands.

• DOI: 10.1002/2211-5463.12168
• 发表时间: 2017-02
• 期刊: FEBS open bio
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: Ahmad L;Rylott EL;Bruce NC;Edwards R;Grogan G
• 通讯作者: Grogan G