Optimize engineered E. coli for arbutin production to reduce costs

Arbutin is a hydroquinone glucoside compound found in a variety of plants. Due to its well-known skin lightening, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activities, it is widely used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. In previous studies, a method for biosynthesis of arbutin from simple carbon sources was implemented in E. coli and the titer of arbutin was increased to 4.19 g / L. In this work, the constitutive promoter replaced the inducible promoter of the original artificial pathway, and the participation of the inducer was no longer needed during the fermentation process, which reduced the fermentation cost. In the appropriate host bacteria, the expression intensity of the artificial pathway was adjusted by a series of stepped strength promoters, which reduced the cost of inducers and the titer reached 4.97 g/L, and material cost is reduced by 89.79%.