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Microbial Production of Curcumin

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Microbial Production of Food Bioactive Compounds

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Abstract

Curcumin, a polyphenol produced by turmeric (Curcuma longa), has attracted increased attention due to its potential as a novel cancer-fighting drug. However, to satisfy the required curcumin demand for health-related studies, high purity curcumin preparations are required, which are difficult to obtain and are very expensive. Curcumin and other curcuminoids are usually obtained through plant extraction. However, these polyphenols accumulate in low amounts over long periods in the plant and their extraction process is costly and not environmentally friendly. In addition, curcumin chemical synthesis is complex. All these reasons limit the advances in studies related to the in vitro and in vivo curcumin biological activities. The microbial production of curcumin appears as a solution to overcome the limitations associated with the currently used methods. Curcumin biosynthesis begins with the conversion of the aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine and tyrosine, into phenylpropanoids, the curcuminoid precursors. The phenylpropanoids are then activated through condensation with a CoA molecule. Afterwards, curcuminoids are synthesized by the action of type III polyketide synthases (PKS) that combine two activated phenylpropanoids and a malonyl-CoA molecule. To engineer microbes to produce curcumin, the curcuminoid biosynthetic genes must be introduced as microorganisms lack the enzymatic reactions responsible to synthesize curcuminoids. In this chapter, the advances regarding the microbial production of curcumin are exposed. The heterologous production of curcumin has been mainly achieved in the bacteria Escherichia coli. However, other microorganisms have already been explored. Besides the introduction of curcumin biosynthetic genes, the optimization of the microbial chassis must also be considered to maximize the production yields. The strategies employed for this purpose are also herein presented. The maximum titer of curcumin produced by a genetically engineered E. coli was 563.4 mg/L with a substrate conversion yield of 100% from supplemented ferulic acid. Moreover, the de novo production of curcumin was accomplished in E. coli reaching 3.8 mg/L of curcumin. Overall, the recent developments on curcumin heterologous production are very encouraging.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/BIO/04469/2020 unit, and by LABBELS – Associate Laboratory in Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Microelectromechnaical Systems, LA/P/0029/2020. J.R. is recipient of a doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BD/138325/2018) supported by a doctoral advanced training funded by FCT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CEB-Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

    João Rainha, Lígia R. Rodrigues & Joana L. Rodrigues

  2. LABBELS–Associate Laboratory, Braga, Portugal

    João Rainha, Lígia R. Rodrigues & Joana L. Rodrigues

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  1. João Rainha
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  2. Lígia R. Rodrigues
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Correspondence to Joana L. Rodrigues .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Iberian Agri-Food Center, University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain

    Seid Mahdi Jafari

  2. Department of Microbiology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

    Farshad Darvishi Harzevili

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Rainha, J., Rodrigues, L.R., Rodrigues, J.L. (2022). Microbial Production of Curcumin. In: Jafari, S.M., Harzevili, F.D. (eds) Microbial Production of Food Bioactive Compounds. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81403-8_8-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81403-8_8-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-81403-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-81403-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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