Abstract
Hypotaurine is the predecessor substrate of Taurine, in the pathway of cysteine metabolism, which can be obtained naturally by some foods, biosynthesized by some organisms or produced through a series of chemical reactions. Taurine and hypotaurine synthesis is an important process as it plays many roles in the functions on the human body, specially like an endogenous neurotransmitter, among other organisms. The main aim of our project is to successfully introduce a couple of enzymes into Escherichia coli’s genome so it can biosynthesize this important molecule. To achieve this, these two taurine-pathway enzymes were selected: cysteine sulfinic acid decarboxylase (CSAD) and cysteine dioxygenase (CDO). It is important to highlight the fact that it’s the first time we synthesize both of them using synthetic biology techniques.
