Engineering Sphingobium sp. to Accumulate Various Carotenoids Using Agro-Industrial Byproducts

Carotenoids represent the most abundant lipid-soluble phytochemicals that have been shown to exhibit benefits for nutrition and health. The production of natural carotenoids is not yet cost effective to compete with chemically synthetic ones. Therefore, the demand for natural carotenoids and improved efficiency of carotenoid biosynthesis has driven the investigation of metabolic engineering of native carotenoid producers. In this study, a new Sphingobium sp. was isolated, and it was found that it could use a variety of agro-industrial byproducts like soybean meal, okara, and corn steep liquor to accumulate large amounts of nostoxanthin. Then we tailored it into three mutated strains that instead specifically accumulated similar to 5 mg/g of CDW of phytoene, lycopene, and zeaxanthin due to the loss-of-function of the specific enzyme. A high-efficiency targeted engineering carotenoid synthesis platform was constructed in Escherichia coli for identifying the functional roles of candidate genes of carotenoid biosynthetic pathway in Sphingobium sp. To further prolong the metabolic pathway, we engineered the Sphingobium sp. to produce high-titer astaxanthin (10 mg/g of DCW) through balance in the key enzymes beta-carotene ketolase (BKT) and beta-carotene hydroxylase (CHY). Our study provided more biosynthesis components for bioengineering of carotenoids and highlights the potential of the industrially important bacterium for production of various natural carotenoids.