Engineered Biosynthetic Pathway For Synthesis Of Cannabinoids In Yeast (IMAGE)

University of California - Berkeley

Engineered Biosynthetic Pathway For Synthesis Of Cannabinoids In Yeast

Caption

To produce cannabinoids in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), UC Berkeley synthetic biologists first engineered yeast's native mevalonate pathway to provide a high flux of geranyl pyrophosphate (GPP) and introduced a hexanoyl-CoA biosynthetic pathway combining genes from five different bacteria. They then introduced Cannabis genes encoding the enzymes involved in olivetolic acid (OA) biosynthesis, a previously undiscovered prenyl transferase enzyme (CsPT4) and cannabinoid synthases. The synthases converted cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) to the cannabinoid acids THCA and CBDA, which, upon exposure to heat, decarboxylate to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), respectively.

Credit

Jay Keasling lab, UC Berkeley

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