Green Production of a High-value Mosquito Insecticide of Nootkatone from Seaweed Hydrolysates

作者：Ma, Lingling; Wu, Tao; Liu, Peiling; Chen, Dongying; Cai, Shengliang; Chen, Hefeng; Zhou, Jingtao; Zhu, Chaoyi^*; Li, Shuang^*

来源：Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2023, 71(48): 18919-18927.

DOI：10.1021/acs.jafc.3c06708

• seaweed hydrolysates
• valencene
• nootkatone
• whole-cell biotransformation
• mosquito repellent

Nootkatone is a type of valuable sesquiterpene that is widely used in food, cosmetics, fragrance, and other fields. The industry is faced with a major challenge due to the high expenses associated with plant-extracted nootkatone. We have developed a fermentation process for valencene production using seaweed hydrolysate as a carbon source via engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Reduced-pressure distillation purified valencene was used as a substrate, and a yeast strain carrying HPO/AtCPR1 and ADH genes was constructed for whole-cell catalysis. After biotransformation at 25 degrees C for 3 h, a high yield of 73% for nootkatone production was obtained. Further, simple rotary evaporation was used to obtain nootkatone with a high purity of 97.4%. Mosquito-repellent testing showed that 1% nootkatone has a mosquito-repellent effect lasting up to 6 h, which is comparable to the 20% N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) effect. This study provided practical experience for developing third-generation biomass resources, generating new ideas for green manufacturing of valuable chemical products, and serving as a reference for creating efficient and eco-friendly mosquito repellents.