ent-Kaurene, ent-kauran-16-ol, and shunted diterpenoids from an engineered strain of Aspergillus oryzae
- 1Institute for Organic Chemistry and BMWZ, Leibniz University Hannover Schneiderberg 38 30167 Hannover Germany
- 2Institute of Botany, Leibniz University Hannover Herrenhäuser Straße 2 30419 Hannover Germany
- 3Pharmacognosy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tanta University Tanta 31527 Egypt
Abstract
Aspergillus oryzae was engineered to produce high levels of geranylgeranyldiphosphate (GGPP) and ent-kaurene, via ent-copalyl diphosphate, as precursors for future metabolic engineering projects via the expression of ggs2 and cps/ks genes from Gibberella fujikuroi under the control of strong constitutive promoters. GGPP was shunted to three new metabolites that were fully identified by NMR and HRMS. ent-Copalyl diphosphate was shunted to a further seven new compounds that were also identified by NMR and HRMS. The titre of ent-kaurene was significantly increased by heterologous expression of a truncated hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA reductase gene from Avena strigosa (AstHMGR), while replacement of the dual terpene cyclase encoding gene cps/ks with the individual cyclase genes, ptmT2 from Streptomyces platensis and Bjks from Bradyrhizobium japonicum, resulted mainly in accumulation of ent-copalyl diphosphate-derived shunt products. Finally, ent-kauran-16-ol was biosynthesised by coexpression of ggs2 with the bacterial cyclases ptmT2 and ptmT3.
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BibTeX
@article{arafa2026entkaurene,
title = {{ent-Kaurene, ent-kauran-16-ol, and shunted diterpenoids from an engineered strain of Aspergillus oryzae}},
author = {Ahmed Arafa and Yuechen Jiang and Jennifer Gerke and Jakob Franke and Russell J. Cox},
journal = {RSC Advances},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1039/d6ra05338f},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1039/d6ra05338f},
note = {CC BY 3.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - ent-Kaurene, ent-kauran-16-ol, and shunted diterpenoids from an engineered strain of Aspergillus oryzae
AU - Ahmed Arafa
AU - Yuechen Jiang
AU - Jennifer Gerke
AU - Jakob Franke
AU - Russell J. Cox
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/26
JO - RSC Advances
DO - 10.1039/d6ra05338f
UR - https://doi.org/10.1039/d6ra05338f
AB - Aspergillus oryzae was engineered to produce high levels of geranylgeranyldiphosphate (GGPP) and ent-kaurene, via ent-copalyl diphosphate, as precursors for future metabolic engineering projects via the expression of ggs2 and cps/ks genes from Gibberella fujikuroi under the control of strong constitutive promoters. GGPP was shunted to three new metabolites that were fully identified by NMR and HRMS. ent-Copalyl diphosphate was shunted to a further seven new compounds that were also identified by NMR and HRMS. The titre of ent-kaurene was significantly increased by heterologous expression of a truncated hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA reductase gene from Avena strigosa (AstHMGR), while replacement of the dual terpene cyclase encoding gene cps/ks with the individual cyclase genes, ptmT2 from Streptomyces platensis and Bjks from Bradyrhizobium japonicum, resulted mainly in accumulation of ent-copalyl diphosphate-derived shunt products. Finally, ent-kauran-16-ol was biosynthesised by coexpression of ggs2 with the bacterial cyclases ptmT2 and ptmT3.
SN - 2046-2069
ER -