微生物以5-氨基乙酰丙酸为唯一前体物合成血红素的研究进展*

随着人造肉热潮的兴起,血红素作为其呈色物质也愈发引起研究者的兴趣。血红素是一种含Fe²⁺的卟啉类化合物,以5-氨基乙酰丙酸为唯一前体物,在生物体中分别通过粪卟啉依赖性、原卟啉依赖性和西罗血红素依赖性三个途径合成,被认为是一种理想的补铁剂和着色剂。与化学合成法和生物提取法相比,微生物合成法具有操作方便、环境友好等优点,因此是一种非常有前景的血红素生产方法。介绍血红素的合成途径,总结微生物以5-氨基乙酰丙酸为唯一前体物合成血红素的最新进展,并简要分析其面临的挑战和前景。

Research Progress on Microbial Synthesis of Heme Using 5-Aminolevulinic Acid as the Sole Precursor

With the rise of the artificial meat craze, heme, which is the coloring substance of artificial meat, has increasingly attracted the interest of researchers. As a porphyrin compound containing iron, it takes 5-aminolevulinic acid as the only precursor, and is synthesized in organisms through three pathways, namely, coproporphyrin-dependent, protoporphyrin-dependent, and siroheme-dependent, which is considered to be an ideal iron supplement and colorant. Compared with chemical synthesis and biological extraction, microbial synthesis is the promising method to make mass product of heme due to its convenient operation, environmental-friendly and so on. This article introduces the synthetic pathway of heme in detail, and summarizes the latest progress in the production of heme using 5-aminolevulinic acid as the sole precursor by microorganisms. In addition, the challenges and prospects of synthetic microorganisms were briefly analyzed.