Coding

Part:BBa_K1484103:Experience

Designed by: Guy Lewy   Group: iGEM14_Cambridge-JIC   (2014-10-08)

This experience page is provided so that any user may enter their experience using this part.
Please enter how you used this part and how it worked out.

Applications of BBa_K1484103

Useful for converting coumaroyl-coA into 4-hydroxybenzalacetone (which is also referred to simply as benzalacetone), potentially as a precursor to raspberry ketone.

RK_pathway_sma.jpg

User Reviews

When we used it in Cambridge, England, it worked really well!

When E coli expressing benzalacetone synthase and 4-coumarate coenzyme A ligase (BBa_K1484115), as part of a benzalacetone generator (BBa_K1484317) were incubated for two days, we got the following spectrum after shaking the culture with ethyl acetate and running on an LCMS setup:

BAS_works.jpg

The peak marked with a green star, when passed through a mass spectrometer, gave peaks characteristic of benzalacetone. The large peak to its left is p-coumaric acid, so conversion was incomplete but significant.

Beware that when E. coli were transformed to also express 'benzalacetone reductase' (BBa_M36705), raspberry ketone was NOT produced. This agrees with the findings of the lab that this gene was cloned by, led by Dr Jules Beekwilder in Wageningen, The Netherlands, that this protein was not shown to exhibit benzalacetone reductase activity either in vivo or in vitro.



UNIQ421dc686d52db866-partinfo-00000000-QINU UNIQ421dc686d52db866-partinfo-00000001-QINU