Production of 4-ene-3-ketosteroids in corynebacterium glutamicum

Abstract

Corynebacterium glutamicum has been widely used for the industrial production of amino acids and many value-added chemicals, however, it has not been exploited for the production of steroids. Using C. glutamicum as a cellular biocatalyst we have expressed the 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/isomerase MSMEG_5228 from Mycobacterium smegmatis to demonstrate that the resulting recombinant strain is able to oxidize in vivo C19 and C21 3-OH-steroids to their corresponding keto-derivatives. This new approach constitutes a proof of concept of a biotechnological process for producing value-added intermediates such as 4-pregnen-16α,17α-epoxy-16β-methyl-3,20-dione.