Synthetic Biology and Fermentation Platforms for the Production of High-Value Plant Natural Products

Many wonderful molecules found in nature are scarce, impure, or hard to consistently supply. In particular, many fragrances and flavors are derived from plants. Extraction of these ingredients has its downsides, from environmental hazards to burdens on our natural resources to production inefficiencies. At Conagen Inc., we have established powerful synthetic biology and fermentation platforms to produce high-quality, rare and costly ingredients. As an example, we will talk about one of our representative terpene products α-ionone, which is a derivative of carotenoids and valued in perfumery and flavor. Our Natural-Terpene Platform covers gene discovery, strain engineering, process optimization, fermentation scale-up, and downstream processing. We will share several important insights for strain development including heterologous host selection, precursor supply improvement, bottleneck identification, novel gene discovery, protein engineering, solubility enhancement, and subcellular compartmentalization. Some representative products from our Natural-Terpene Platform will also be introduced in the presentation.