APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
- Dietary supplements
- Animal feed
- Antioxidant containing functional food
ADVANTAGES:
- Stable and sustainable formation of antioxidants with high purity
- Provides a renewable microbial platform for production of a wide range of chemicals
ABSTRACT:
Joint BioEnergy Institute researchers led by Taek Soon Lee have developed a method to increase production of the antioxidant hydroxytyrosol (HTy) from L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA). With this approach, researchers used an E. coli host cell capable of producing L-DOPA and a modified E. coli host cell capable of converting L-DOPA into HTy.
The HTy formation pathway consists of five heterologous enzymes for tyrosine hydroxylation and conversion of L-DOPA to HTy. With these modifications, researchers saw a 25-fold improvement in HTy output from previous results.
Existing technologies to produce HTy antioxidants include chemical and enzymatic hydrolysis of enriched olive oil extracts. However, this method is difficult to apply to achieve a high purity product because the formation of HTy involves a complex mixture of compounds with similar chemical structures. The present invention uses microbial fermentation to create a stable, sustainable, and pure HTy formation pathway.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Bench scale production
STATUS: Patent pending. Available for licensing or collaborative research.
SEE THESE OTHER BERKELEY LAB TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS FIELD:
Microbial Synthesis of Hydroxytyrosol and Other Aromatic Amino Acid Derivatives EJIB-2939