Biosynthesis of the vitamin E compound delta-tocotrienol in recombinant Escherichia coli cells.

The biosynthesis of natural products in a fast growing and easy to manipulate heterologous host system, such as Escherichia coli, is of increasing interest in biotechnology. This procedure allows the investigation of complex natural product biosynthesis and facilitates the engineering of pathways. Here we describe the cloning and the heterologous expression of tocochromanol (vitamin E) biosynthesis genes in E.