FURI | Spring 2023

Evolving Corynebacterium glutamicum to Accelerate Growth for the Increased Production of Flavonoids

Flavonoids, aromatic organic molecules, have several properties that make them of pharmaceutical interest. By using metabolic engineering, Corynebacterium glutamicum (C. glutamicum) can be engineered to produce flavonoids from toxic aromatic monomers. By exposing C. glutamicum to high concentrations of these monomers, cells with appropriate mutations will outcompete those that received harmful mutations. Through this process, evolved strains of C. glutamicum should develop mutations that allow them to grow faster and thus convert more aromatics to flavonoids. Additionally, the evolved strains will have more resistance to the toxicity of the aromatic monomers which will allow the bacteria to be more productive.