Sarcosine (N-Methylglycine) Strain Engineering Service

Sarcosine, an N-methylated amino acid derivative, is valuable in the chemical, food (flavoring), and pharmaceutical industries. Its traditional production relies on inefficient chemical synthesis or low-yield plant extraction. The low titer of current prokaryotic bioproduction systems poses a major challenge to its industrial viability and cost-effectiveness.

CD Biosynsis is focused on overcoming these bioproduction bottlenecks. We employ advanced synthetic biology strategies, including two-step modification of core metabolic pathways in Escherichia coli and chassis optimization for high-titer hosts like Streptomyces . Our goal is to drastically enhance Sarcosine yield, moving production from the $\text{mg/L}$ range to industrial-scale viability. We provide tailored solutions to establish a stable, high-efficiency microbial production platform for Sarcosine.

Pain Points

Despite growing demand, Sarcosine bioproduction faces several critical challenges:

• Extremely Low Bioproduction Titer: Current prokaryotic expression systems (e.g., E. coli ) typically achieve Sarcosine production yields of only around $\text{15 mg/L}$ . This low concentration makes downstream extraction economically infeasible for large-scale production.
• Inefficient Traditional Methods: Plant extraction is constrained by low natural abundance and seasonal variability, leading to high cost and low yield. Chemical synthesis often uses harsh reagents and generates complex byproducts.
• Suboptimal Methyl Donor Supply: The synthesis of Sarcosine from glycine requires an efficient methyl donor (e.g., $\text{S-adenosylmethionine, SAM}$) pathway. Insufficient or poorly regulated SAM production is often the rate-limiting step.
• Pathway Competition: The precursor (glycine) and the methyl donor are central metabolites, competing with other essential cell processes, leading to flux diversion and reduced target product synthesis.

The core bottleneck is the inability of current microbial hosts to efficiently channel metabolites toward the methylation pathway required for high-yield Sarcosine production.

Solutions

CD Biosynsis targets the primary metabolic limitations of Sarcosine production through a multi-pronged engineering approach focusing on flux enhancement and host optimization:

Two-Step Pathway Modification in E. coli

           

We implement a two-step strategy in E. coli : Step 1 focuses on enhancing the precursor (glycine) supply pathway; Step 2 targets the SAM cycle to boost the availability of the methyl donor for the final methylation step.

Streptomyces Chassis Adaptation Optimization

We leverage the complex metabolism of Streptomyces hosts, known for synthesizing secondary metabolites. Genetic optimization improves the host's tolerance to high product concentration and enhances its native methyl transfer capabilities.

Methyltransferase Enzyme Engineering

The core enzyme, methyltransferase , is engineered (e.g., directed evolution) to improve its catalytic efficiency and specificity towards glycine, overcoming the rate-limiting methylation reaction.

Competing Pathway Knockout

Genes responsible for competing metabolic pathways (those consuming glycine or SAM) are precisely knocked out to redirect the maximum possible carbon flux toward Sarcosine synthesis, ensuring minimal loss.