Self-Sufficient Tyrosine Biosynthesis in Engineered Escherichia Coli for Cost-Effective Melanin Production

Abstract

To address substrate dependency in microbial melanin production, we engineered a tyrosine self-sufficient system in E. coli for sustainable melanin biosynthesis by integrating tyrosinase tyr1 with overexpression of feedback-resistant aroGfbr and tyrAfbr. The system achieved 5.58–7.57 mg/mL melanin yields without exogenous tyrosine, reducing costs by 57.7-68.4% versus conventional methods. This strategy established a cost-effective platform for microbial pigment production.

Keywords: Microbial melanin, Biosynthesis, Self-Sufficient, Cost-effective, Escherichia coli