Abstract:
Valencene, a kind of sesquiterpenoid with a citrus flavor, is mainly found in
Valencia orange and is commonly used in cosmetics and food additives, as well as industrial synthetic nootkatone. In this study, synthetic biology was used to create a
Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell factory to produce valencene. Fistly, valencene synthase gene (
CnVS) from
Callitropsis nootkatensis was inserted into the chromosome of the chassis strain YTT-T5. The resulting strain VAL-01 could produce 1.1 mg·L
-1 valencene. Protein fusion technique was used, different valencene synthases were compared and the copy number of key genes was adjusted, yielding valencene to 436.4 mg·L
-1. Then, knocking-out the transcription factor
ROX1 resulted in valencene improvement by 17.4%. Moreover, the induction system of galactose was regulated, transcription factor
PDR3 and
INO2 were overexpressed. The engineered strain VAL-10 could produce 2 798.6 mg·L
-1 valencene by high cell density fermentation method (nearly 2 500 times higher than VAL-01). This study provides a basis for green production of valencene.