Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for biotechnological chondroitin production

Abstract

[Excerpt] Background: Chondroitin is a glycosaminoglycan that is usually extracted from animal cartilage. It has been widely used in dietary supplements for osteoarthritis due to its anti-inflammatory properties. Microbial fermentation has been evaluated as a promising, safer and more sustainable source for this compound. The most studied microorganism for biotechnological production of chondroitin is the pathogen Escherichia coli O5:K4:H4 [1–5], since it naturally produces fructosylated chondroitin as a capsule constituent. Despite the advances on strain and bioprocess enhancement using E. coli K4 or recombinant strains, the yields obtained in microbial fermentations are not sufficient to meet the increasing demand. In silico analysis can provide insights on the design of strains with improved metabolic flux towards chondroitin production. [...]