Constructing multi‐enzymatic cascade reactions for selective production of 6‐bromoindirubin from tryptophan in Escherichia coli

Abstract

6-Bromoindirubin (6BrIR), found in Murex sea snails, is a precursor of indirubinderivatives anticancer drugs. However, its synthesis remains limited due to uncharacterized biosynthetic pathways and difficulties in site-specific bromination and oxidation at the indole ring. Here, we present an efficient 6BrIR production strategy in Escherichia coli by using four enzymes, that is, tryptophan 6-halogenase fused with flavin reductase Fre (Fre-L3-SttH), tryptophanase (TnaA), toluene 4-monooxygenase (PmT4MO), and flavin-containing monooxygenase (MaFMO).Although most indole oxygenases preferentially oxygenate the electronically active C3 position of indole, PmT4MO was newly characterized to perform C2 oxygenation of 6-bromoindole with 45% yield to produce 6-bromo-2-oxindole. In addition, 6BrIR was selectively generated without indigo and indirubin byproducts by controlling the reducing power of cysteine and oxygen supply during the MaFMO reaction.These approaches led to 34.1 mg/L 6BrIR productions, making it possible to produce the critical precursor of the anticancer drugs only from natural ingredients such as tryptophan, NaBr, and oxygen.

Indoles and the advances in their biotechnological production for industrial applications

“…Spontaneous oxidative condensation of 3-hydroxyindole/2-Cys-indoleninone and 6-bromo-2-oxoindole to 6-bromoindirubin was enhanced by a shift from pH 7 to 9. In the optimised process, where the three strains were sequentially added in the fermentation process, a titre of 34 mg/L was achieved [107]. Very recently, halogenated monoterpene indole alkaloids such as bromoalstonine, the brominated, more active form of the antipsychotic drug alstonine could be produced by an engineered yeast [110].…”