Biosynthetic Mint
AssigneeThe University of Manchester
InventorsNigel Shaun Scrutton, Helen Susan Toogood, John Gardiner
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Abstract
A method for producing a menthol isomer is disclosed, comprising: (i) providing a microorganism modified to have increased expression of an ene reductase and one or more menthone dehydrogenase; (ii) contacting said microorganism, or a protein-containing extract thereof, with a biosynthetic precursor of said menthol isomer; and (iii) maintaining the mixture of step (ii) under conditions suitable for biotransformation of said biosynthetic precursor to said menthol isomer.
Claims20
A method for producing a menthol isomer, comprising:
- (i) providing a microorganism modified to have increased expression of:
- (a) an ene reductase having at least 95% sequence identity to Nicotiana tabacum double bond reductase (NtDBR) (SEQ ID NO:3), and
- (b) one or more menthone dehydrogenase having at least 95% sequence identity to Mentha piperita (−)-menthone:(−)-menthol reductase (MMR:
- SEQ ID NO:1) or Mentha piperita (−)-menthone:(+)-neomenthol reductase (MNMR;
- SEQ ID NO:2);
- (ii) contacting said microorganism, or a protein-containing extract thereof, with a biosynthetic precursor of said menthol isomer;
- and
- (iii) maintaining the mixture of step (ii) under conditions suitable for biotransformation of said biosynthetic precursor to said menthol isomer.
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A microorganism comprising heterologous nucleic acid encoding an ene reductase having at least 95% sequence identity to Nicotiana tabacum double bond reductase (NtDBR;
- SEQ NO ID:
- 3), and one or more menthone dehydrogenase having at least 95% sequence identity to Mentha piperita (−)-menthone:(−)-menthol reductase (MMR:
- SEQ ID NO:
- 1) or Mentha piperita (−)-menthone:(+)-neomenthol reductase (MNMR;
- SEQ ID NO:
- 2).
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A composition comprising:
- an ene reductase and one or more menthone dehydrogenase,
- wherein said menthone dehydrogenase has
- (i) an amino acid sequence having at least 95% sequence identity to Mentha piperita (−)-menthone:(−)menthol reductase (MMR:
- SEQ ID NO:
- 1) or a fragment thereof having menthone dehydrogenase activity;
- or
- (ii) an amino acid sequence having at least 95% sequence identity to Mentha piperita (−)-menthone:(+)-neomenthol reductase (MNMR;
- SEQ ID NO:
- 2) or fragment thereof having menthone dehydrogenase activity;
- and
- wherein said ene reductase has an amino acid sequence having at least 95% sequence identity to Nicotiana tabacum double bond reductase (NtDBR;
- SEQ ID NO:
- 3) or a fragment thereof having ene reductase activity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.