Extracellular diterpene production

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for the production of a diterpene or a glycosylated diterpene, which method comprises: a. fermenting a recombinant microorganism in a suitable fermentation medium, wherein the microorganism comprises one or more nucleotide sequence(s) encoding: a polypeptide having ent-copalyl pyrophosphate synthase activity; a polypeptide having ent-Kaurene synthase activity; a polypeptide having ent-Kaurene oxidase activity; and a polypeptide having kaurenoic acid 13-hydroxylase activity and whereby expression of the nucleotide sequence(s) confer(s) on the microorganism the ability to produce at least steviol, whereby a diterpene or glycosylated diterpene is produced extracellularly in the fermentation medium; and b. recovering the diterpene or glycosylated diterpene from the fermentation medium.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.