Ergothioneine production through metabolic engineering

The present disclosure relates to the production of ergothioneine through either in vitro enzymatic transformations or fermentations using microbials created by metabolic engineering. Also disclosed are transformed cells useful in such methods and ergothioneine produced by such methods. Transformed cells of the disclosure are capable of converting histidine and cysteine or hercynine and cysteine into ergothioneine in greater efficiency than the untransformed wild-type cells.