Vivo synthesis of sialylated compounds

Abstract

This disclosure is in the technical field of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. More particularly, the disclosure is in the technical field of fermentation of metabolically engineered microorganisms. The disclosure describes engineered microorganisms able to synthesize sialylated compounds via an intracellular biosynthesis route. These microorganisms can dephosphorylate N-acetylglucosamine-6-phopshate to N-acetyl glucosamine and convert the N-acetylglucosamine to N-acetylmannosamine. These microorganisms also have the ability to convert N-acetylmannosamine to N-acetyl-neuraminate. Furthermore, provided is a method for the large scale in vivo synthesis of sialylated compounds, by culturing a microorganism in a culture medium, optionally comprising an exogenous precursor such as, but not limited to lactose, lactoNbiose, N-acetyllactosamine and/or an aglycon, wherein the microorganism intracellularly dephosphorylates N-acetylglucosamine-6-phopshate to N-acetylglucosamine, converts N-acetylglucosamine to N-acetylmannosamine and convert the latter further to N-acetyl-neuraminate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.