Biosynthesis of naringenin-7-O-glucoside using Co-culture of metabolically engineered Echerichia coli

The secondary metabolites, flavonoids, which have been demonstrated to contain numerous valuable bioactive compounds with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and anti-aging properties, are widely used in pharmaceutical/biomedical research and practical applications. Methods for synthesis and production of these flavonoid compounds include extraction from plants, chemical synthesis and microbiological synthesis. Among them, microbiological methods have gained much interest due to their simplicity, simple implementation, high yields and environment friendliness, in which microbial strains (natural or recombinant) are usually used for biosynthesis. In the present paper, we described a method for biosynthesis of naringenin -7- O -glucoside by co-culturing two metabolically engineered Escherichia coli strains (EC1 and EC2).  Naringenin -7- O -glucoside was successfully biosynthesised from p -coumaric acid substrate. The highest concentration of 4.82 µM was obtained after 48 hours of culturing with a mixing ratio of EC1:EC2 = 1:8 (v:v) based on a starting optical density of OD 600nm = 2.2–2.4  for each strain at 32°C. This work showed the great potential of co-culture for biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites using microorganisms.