Microbial production of mammalian melatonin - a promising solution to melatonin industry

Abstract

Due to its beneficial effects on multiple metabolic diseases such as obesity, hyperglycemia and blood pressure control, melatonin has been widely used as dietary supplement for many years. Although originally extracted from animal pineal tissues, nowadays melatonin is mainly produced through chemical synthesis in order to avoid the risk of viral contamination in animal tissues. As a new alternative, in this issue of Biotechnology Journal, Germann et al. [1] report the construction and functional expression of a de novo melatonin biosynthesis pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, achieving biosynthesis of mammalian melatonin directly from glucose for the first time. This study provides a promising strategy for industrial melatonin production in the near future.