Biotechnology Bulletin ›› 2024, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (1): 86-99.doi: 10.13560/j.cnki.biotech.bull.1985.2023-0663

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Research Progress in the Production of Ergothioneine by Biosynthesis

LI Liang(), XU Shan-shan, JIANG Yan-jun()   

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130
  • Received:2023-07-12 Online:2024-01-26 Published:2024-02-06
  • Contact: JIANG Yan-jun E-mail:liangli@hebut.edu.cn;yanjunjiang@hebut.edu.cn

Abstract:

Ergothioneine(ERG), a rare natural sulfur-containing histidine derivative, has been proved to have strong antioxidant property and many biological functions. Therefore, ERG has been received much more attention from researchers and product developers. Currently, ERG has been widely used in food, cosmetics and medical industries. Research shows that ERG only can be synthesized by a few bacteria and fungi. Plants, animals and humans cannot synthesize ERG directly, but it could be obtained by other sources. ERG can be obtained by bioextraction, chemical synthesis, and biosynthesis. However, because of the low yield and poor production efficiency of the traditional methods(bioextraction and chemical synthesis), the large-scale production and application of ERG is limited. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an efficient, economical, safe and reliable ERG synthesis method to meet market needs. With the rapid development of synthetic biology, the use of genetic engineering, protein engineering and metabolic engineering to improve the ability of ERG biosynthesis has gradually become an increasingly favored method. This paper will elaborate the biological characteristics and functions, briefly introduce the biosynthetic pathways of ERG and application prospects of ERG in food, cosmetics and medical industries, compare the main production methods of ERG, and summarize and sort the research progress of adopting various engineering strategies to produce ERG by biosynthesis in recent years, and propose several engineering strategies on how to use genetic engineering, protein engineering and metabolic engineering to increase the yield of ERG, which aims to provide theoretical reference and research ideas for biosynthesis high-yield of ERG.

Key words: ergothioneine, biosynthesis, biosynthetic pathway, genetic engineering, protein engineering, metabolic engineering, fermentation