Publications by authors named "Caizhe Zhang"

Article Synopsis
  • Sesterterpenoids like ophiobolins have potential medicinal value due to their cytotoxic activity, but there's a need for more of them for drug development.
  • A metabolic engineering strategy was developed using yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to enhance the biosynthesis of ophiobolins, achieving a yield of 5.1 g/L of ophiobolin F.
  • The research led to the identification of a new cytotoxic intermediate and successful production of ophiobolin U, establishing yeast as a valuable cell factory for producing sesterterpenoids for medicinal use.
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Terpenoids are a large family of natural products with remarkable diverse biological functions, and have a wide range of applications as pharmaceuticals, flavors, pigments, and biofuels. Synthetic biology is presenting possibilities for sustainable and efficient production of high value-added terpenoids in engineered microbial cell factories, using and which are identified as well-known industrial workhorses. They also provide a promising alternative to produce non-native terpenes on account of available genetic tools in metabolic engineering and genome editing.

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A whole-cell catalyst using Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) as a host, expressing L- threonine dehydratase from Escherichia coli, and co-expressing leucine dehydrogenase from Bacillus cereus and glucose dehydrogenase from Bacillus subtilis for cofactor regeneration, was constructed and used for one-pot production of L-2-aminobutyric acid (L-ABA) and D- gluconic acid from L-threonine and D-glucose. We used shake-flask culture to study the whole-cell catalytic condition including temperature, pH, proper permeabilization of cells and optimal wet cells amount. Moreover, the whole-cell catalyst was cultured in 5-L fermentor by fed-batch fermentation, and 164 g/L L-threonine and 248 g/L D-glucose were converted to 141.

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