Exploring The Reconstruction of The Carminic Acid Biosynthetic Pathway in 3 Different Heterologous Hosts
PhD defence by Waranid Sutthacharoenthad
Assessment Committee
Associate professor Hussam Hassan Nour Eldin Auis, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Associate Professor Michele Fabris, Department of Ecosustainable Marine Biotechnology, stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn /
Professor Irina Borodina, NNF center BRIGHT, DTU
Supervisors
Professor Birger Lindberg Møller
Associate Professor Johan Andersen-Ranberg
Department
Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Place
Building: 83, Room: A2-83.01, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871 Frederiksberg
Email address to gain access to the thesis: waranid.s@gmail.com.
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Short description of the thesis
Carminic acid (CA) is the vivid red pigment used in countless food and cosmetic products, yet it is still harvested from millions of insects. This process is slow, geographically limited, and inconsistent. This thesis explores an alternative approach by reconstructing the CA in three heterologous hosts: plant, yeast, and microalga. The work demonstrates pigment accumulation in plant cells, reconstructs the pathway up to a key intermediate in yeast, and establishes the first pathway step in microalgae, while identifying a common enzymatic bottleneck that must be overcome to enable sustainable, scalable, insect-free production of CA.