Metabolic engineering of the E. coli L-phenylalanine pathway for the production of D-phenylglycine (D-Phg).

D-phenylglycine (D-Phg) is an important side chain building block for semi-synthetic penicillins and cephalosporins such as ampicillin and cephalexin. To produce d-Phg ultimately from glucose, metabolic engineering was applied. Starting from phenylpyruvate, which is the direct precursor of L-phenylalanine, an artificial D-Phg biosynthesis pathway was created.

Metabolic engineering for microbial production of shikimic acid.

Shikimic acid is a high valued compound used as a key starting material for the synthesis of the neuramidase inhibitor GS4104, which was developed under the name Tamiflu for treatment of antiviral infections. An excellent alternative to the isolation of shikimic acid from fruits of the Illicium plant is the fermentative production by metabolic engineered microorganisms. Fermentative production of shikimic acid was most successfully carried out by rational designed Escherichia coli strains by blocking the aromatic amino acid pathway after the production of shikimic acid.