De novo biosynthesis of N-acetyltyramine in engineered Escherichia coli

N-acetyltyramine as a tyramine alkaloid has drawn great attention because of its excellent anti-free radical, antithrombotic, and antitumour activity. Therefore, it is an attractive compound. In this study, we reported for the first time the construction a synthetic pathway of N-acetyltyramine in engineered Escherichia coli. First, the tyrosine decarboxylase tdc gene and arylalkylamine N-acyltransferase aanat gene were introduced into E. coli to generate a recombinant N-acetyltyramine producer with L-tyrosine as substrate. Subsequently, overexpressing aroGfbr and TyrAfbr enhance the availability of L-tyrosine to achieve de novo biosynthesis of N-acetyltyramine from glucose. Finally, overexpressing the transketolase I tktA and phosphoenolpyruvate synthase ppsA genes improved the N-acetyltyramine production to 854 mg/L.