Efficient Synthesis of Crocins from Crocetin by a Microbial Glycosyltransferase from Bacillus subtilis 168

Fangyu Ding, Feng Liu, Wenming Shao, Jianlin Chu, Bin Wu, Bingfang He

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Crocins are the most important active ingredient found in Crocus sativus, a well-known "plant gold". The glycosyltransferase-catalyzed glycosylation of crocetin is the last step of biosynthesizing crocins and contributes to their structural diversity. Crocin biosynthesis is now hampered by the lack of efficient glycosyltransferases with activity toward crocetin. In this study, two microbial glycosyltransferases (Bs-GT and Bc-GTA) were successfully mined based on the comprehensive analysis of the PSPG motif and the N-terminal motif of the target plant-derived UGT75L6 and Cs-GT2. Bs-GT from Bacillus subtilis 168, an enzyme with a higher activity of glycosylation toward crocetin than that of Bc-GTA, was characterized. The efficient synthesis of crocins from crocetin catalyzed by microbial GT (Bs-GT) was first reported with a high molecular conversion rate of 81.9%, resulting in the production of 476.8 mg/L of crocins. The glycosylation of crocetin on its carboxyl groups by Bs-GT specifically produced crocin-5 and crocin-3, the important rare crocins.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11701-11708
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Volume66
Issue number44
DOIs
StatePublished - 7 Nov 2018

Keywords

  • Bacillus subtilis
  • biosynthesis
  • crocetin
  • crocins
  • glycosyltransferase

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