Abstract: A bacterial strain was isolated from soil samples collected from the Gulf Forest Park in Shanghai. Biochemical identification and 16S rDNA sequence analysis indicated that the strain belonged to the genus Enterobacter and was designated as Enterobacter sp. MF024. Whole-genome sequence analysis showed that this strain had all key enzyme encoding genes involved in the Ehrlich pathway and de novo synthesis pathway for 2-phenylethanol. Then, biotransformation experiments were carried out using glucose as the carbon source and L-phenylalanine as the substrate. The key intermediates in the synthetic pathways such as phenylacetaldehyde and phenylpyruvate were further used as the substrates for validation experiments. Enterobacter sp. MF024 possesses both 2-phenylethanol synthesis pathways according to the results from gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and infrared spectrometry. The 2-phenylethanol yield was 0.56 g/L in the de novo synthesis pathway and 1.15 g/L in the Ehrlich pathway. This strain has great potential in the production of 2-phenylethanol by using glucose as the carbon source.

Key words: Enterobacter; 2-phenylethanol; Ehrlich pathway; de novo synthesis pathway