Methylated flavonoids possess improved bioactivities compared to their unmethylated counterparts. In this study, for the efficient production of O-methylated flavonoids from simple methylated phenylpropanoic acids, a recombinant Escherichia coli strain expressing 4-coumarate:coenzyme A ligase (4CL) from Oryza sativa and chalcone synthase (CHS) from Hordeum vulgare was constructed; this strain produced significant amount of homoeriodictyol (~ 52 mg/L) as well as a few amount of hesperetin (0.4 mg/L), respectively, from ferulic acid and 4-methylcaffeic acid. This demonstrates, for the first time, that the scarce but valuable methylated flavanones can be successfully produced from methylated phenylpropanoic acids in a microbial host via an artificial biosynthetic pathway consisting of 4CL and CHS that can accept O-methylated precursors.

中文翻译：

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在工程化大肠杆菌中由甲基化苯基丙酸微生物生产O-甲基化黄烷酮。

与未甲基化的类黄酮相比，甲基化的类黄酮具有更高的生物活性。在这项研究中，为了从简单的甲基化苯基丙酸中高效生产O-甲基化的类黄酮，构建了一种重组稻瘟病菌菌株，该菌株表达了来自稻米的4-香豆酸酯：辅酶A连接酶（4CL）和来自大麦的查尔酮合酶（CHS）。该菌株分别从阿魏酸和4-甲基咖啡酸中产生了大量的间苯三酚（〜52 mg / L）以及少量的橙皮素（0.4 mg / L）。这首次证明，微生物宿主中的甲基化苯基丙酸可以通过人工生物合成途径成功地生产出稀有但有价值的甲基化黄烷酮，该人工合成途径包括可以接受O甲基化前体的4CL和CHS。