A second-generation Bacillus cell factory for rare inositol production

Abstract

Some rare inositol stereoisomers are known to exert specific health-promoting effects, including scyllo-inositol (SI), which is a promising therapeutic agent for Alzheimer disease. We recently reported a Bacillus subtilis cell factory that performed the efficient production of SI from the cheapest and most abundant isomer myo-inositol (MI). In the cell factory all “useless” genes involved in MI and SI metabolism were deleted and overexpression of the key enzymes, IolG and IolW, was appended. It converted 10 g/L MI into the same amount of SI in 48 h of cultivation. In this addendum, we discuss further improvement in the cell factory and its possible applications.