Heterologous Natural Product Biosynthesis for Environmental and Sustainability Applications: Salicylate Glucoside (SAG) Production

The Pfeifer Research Group

Zoom image: Schematic of Salicylate glucoside (SAG) production Schematic of Salicylate glucoside (SAG) production.

Schematic of Salicylate glucoside (SAG) production

At the cellular level, the Pfeifer research group utilizes molecular engineering to reprogram microbial metabolism.  The tools utilized to do so span molecular biology and microbiology, which then serve to enable the reactions or functions supporting various research goals.

Overview

In this work, we developed a high titer (~2 g/L) production system for a salicylate glucoside (SAG) compound that we tested for anti-inflammatory properties, based upon the salicylate moiety shared in common with aspirin.  We also believe this compound could be utilized in crop protection studies based upon its natural role in plants.  We established production of this compound using the same metabolic engineering principles that accompany our other projects in natural product biosynthesis.

Resulting Publications

  • M.K. Ahmadi, L. Fang, N. Moscatello, B.A. Pfeifer. ‘E. coli Metabolic Engineering for Gram Scale Production of a Plant-Based Anti-Inflammatory Agent’ Metab Eng. 38:382-388 (2016)

Students on This Projects

  • Guojian Zhang (Postdoctoral Associate)
  • Ruiquan Qi (PhD)