High-level production of Rhodiola rosea characteristic component rosavin from D-glucose and L-arabinose in engineered Escherichia coli

Rosavin is the characteristic component of Rhodiola rosea L., an important medicinal plant used widely in the world that has been reported to possess multiple biological activities. However, the endangered status of wild Rhodiola has limited the supply of rosavin. In this work, we successfully engineered an Escherichia coli strain to efficiently produce rosavin as an alternative production method. Firstly, cinnamate: CoA ligase from Hypericum calycinum, cinnamoyl-CoA reductase from Lolium perenne, and uridine diphosphate (UDP)-glycosyltransferase (UGT) from Bacillus subtilis (Bs-YjiC) were selected to improve the titer of rosin in E. coli. Subsequently, four UGTs from the UGT91R subfamily were identified to catalyze the formation of rosavin from rosin, with SlUGT91R1 from Solanum lycopersicum showing the highest activity level. Secondly, production of rosavin was achieved for the first time in E. coli by incorporating the SlUGT91R1 and UDP-arabinose pathway, including UDP-glucose dehydrogenase, UDP-xylose synthase, and UDP-xylose 4-epimerase, into the rosin-producing stain, and the titer reached 430.5 ± 91.4 mg/L. Thirdly, a two-step pathway derived from L-arabinose, composed of L-arabinokinase and UDP-sugar pyrophosphorylase, was developed in E. coli to further optimize the supply of the precursor UDP-arabinose. Furthermore, 1203.7 ± 32.1 mg/L of rosavin was produced from D-glucose and L-arabinose using shake-flask fermentation. Finally, the production of rosavin reached 7539.1 ± 228.7 mg/L by fed-batch fermentation in a 5-L bioreactor. Thus, the microbe-based production of rosavin shows great potential for commercialization. This work provides an effective strategy for the biosynthesis of other valuable natural products with arabinose-containing units from D-glucose and L-arabinose.