Lecture: Constructing Synthetic Microbial Consortia for Production of Natural Products 

Lecturer: Assistant Prof. Kang Zhou, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore 

Time: 10:00 am, Sep 25, 2015 

Location: Meeting Room 205 of Administration Building 

Introduction of Lecturer 

Dr. Kang Zhou obtained his Bachelor degree from Tianjin University in 2007 and his PhD degree from Singapore-MIT Alliance in 2012. He worked at MIT as postdoctoral associate from 2012 to 2015, and recently published a research article in Nature Biotechnology (impact factor: 41.5) ‘Distributing a metabolic pathway among a microbial consortium enhances production of natural products’. This July, Dr. Zhou joined NUS Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, and has been dedicated to metabolic engineering of microbes for a variety of applications, such as developing next-generation probiotics and converting industrial waste to biofuels and chemicals. During his visit, he will present his research achievements during his PhD and Postdoc time, advertise his new lab at NUS, and meet with students who are interested in pursuing PhD degree in his lab. 

Lecture Abstract 

Metabolic engineering of microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce high-value natural metabolites is often done through functional reconstitution of long metabolic pathways. Problems arise when parts of pathways require specialized environments or compartments for optimal function. Here we solve this problem through co-culture of multiple engineered organisms, each of which contains the part of the pathway that it is best suited to hosting. In one example, we divided the synthetic pathway for paclitaxel precursors into two modules, expressed in either S. cerevisiae or E. coli, and cultured the microorganisms in the same bioreactor. Stable co-culture was achieved by designing a mutualistic relationship between the two species in which a metabolic intermediate produced by E. coli was used and functionalized by yeast. This synthetic consortium efficiently produced oxygenated taxanes, tanshinone precursors and functionalized sesquiterpenes.