Metabolic Engineering for the Biosynthesis of Pentalenene in the Rapidly Growing Bacterium Vibrio natriegens

Abstract

Vibrio natriegens (V. natriegens) is an emerging synthetic biology chassis characterized by rapid growth, and its potential for the synthesis of sesquiterpenes (such as pentalenene) has not been developed. In this study, heterologous pentalenene biosynthesis was successfully established in V. natriegens via metabolic engineering. The optimization of gene dosage and culture conditions led to an increase in pentalenene yield from 0.75 mg/L to 39.4 mg/L, representing the highest titer reported in V. natriegens to date, though still markedly lower than yields achieved in conventional microbial hosts. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated that the exogenous mevalonate (MVA) pathway effectively activated terpenoid precursor synthesis, as evidenced by the up-regulation of key pathway genes. However, the endogenous methylerythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway remained inactive, and genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, the pentose phosphate pathway, and thiamine biosynthesis were down-regulated, leading to limited availability of ATP, NADPH, and acetyl-CoA. Competition for cofactors, particularly NADPH, further constrained precursor supply and pathway efficiency. This study confirmed the potential of V. natriegens as a pentalenene production platform and revealed its metabolic bottleneck, providing a theoretical basis for subsequent engineering optimization.