Sustainable and secretory production of saffron pigments in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and E. coli
Sustainable and secretory production of saffron pigments in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and E. coli
byShanshan Song, Fatimah Aljedaani, Kit Xi Liew, Jianing Mi, Mohamed Salem, Salim Bougouffa, Sebastian Overmans, Kyle J. Lauersen, Xiongjie Zheng, Salim Al-Babili
DOI:10.1016/j.xplc.2025.101388
Bibliography
Song, S. et al. Sustainable and secretory production of saffron pigments in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and E. coli. Plant Communications 101388 (2025) doi:10.1016/j.xplc.2025.101388.
Extra Information
Shanshan Song et al. engineered Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 to photosynthetically produce and secrete crocetin, a saffron pigment, using genes from Crocus sativus and native pathways. Over 95% of the crocetin was secreted into the medium, enabling direct extraction without biomass processing. Crocetin was further converted into crocins using engineered E. coli in a two-step, spatially separated system, establishing a light-driven, scalable platform for continuous pigment biosynthesis. SSB Lab contributed to photobioreactor experiments in this work.
