Optimized psilocybin production in tryptophan catabolism-repressed fungi.

Janevska S*#, Weiser S*, Huang Y, Lin J, Hoefgen S, Jojić K, Barber AE, Schäfer T, Fricke J, Hoffmeister D, Regestein L, Valiante V, Kufs JE# (2024) Optimized psilocybin production in tryptophan catabolism-repressed fungi. Microb Biotechnol 17(11), e70039.

*equal contribution #corresponding author

Abstract

The high therapeutic potential of psilocybin, a prodrug of the psychotropic psilocin, holds great promise for the treatment of mental disorders such as therapy-refractory depression, alcohol use disorder and anorexia nervosa. Psilocybin has been designated a 'Breakthrough Therapy' by the US Food and Drug Administration, and therefore a sustainable production process must be established to meet future market demands. Here, we present the development of an in vivo psilocybin production chassis based on repression of l-tryptophan catabolism. We demonstrate the proof of principle in Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing the psilocybin biosynthetic genes. Deletion of the two aminotransferase genes ARO8/9 and the indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase gene BNA2 yielded a fivefold increase of psilocybin titre. We transferred this knowledge to the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans and identified functional ARO8/9 orthologs involved in fungal l-tryptophan catabolism by genome mining and cross-complementation. The double deletion mutant of A. nidulans resulted in a 10-fold increased psilocybin production. Process optimization based on respiratory activity measurements led to a final psilocybin titre of 267 mg/L in batch cultures with a space-time-yield of 3.7 mg/L/h. These results demonstrate the suitability of our engineered A. nidulans to serve as a production strain for psilocybin and other tryptamine-derived pharmaceuticals.

Leibniz-HKI-Authors

Janis Fricke
Dirk Hoffmeister
Ying Huang
Slavica Janevska
Katarina Jojić
Johann Kufs
Jun Lin
Lars Regestein
Tim Schäfer
Vito Valiante
Sophie Weiser

Identifier

doi: 10.1111/1751-7915.70039

PMID: 39487767