This invention relates to a method for producing
indirubin using a co-culture
system of *E. coli*, comprising the following steps: Step 1, culturing a first engineered bacterium to the late
logarithmic growth stage to obtain a
fermentation broth of the first engineered bacterium; Step 2, activating and culturing a second engineered bacterium to the early
logarithmic growth stage, collecting and resuspending the bacterial cells to obtain a bacterial suspension of the second engineered bacterium; Step 3, inoculating the bacterial suspension of the second engineered bacterium into the
fermentation broth of the first engineered bacterium, adding
cysteine to begin co-culture, and adding an
inducer to induce expression; when co-culturing for 16-30 hours, adding
indigo and / or 2-hydroxyindole; continuing co-culturing for 40-60 hours to obtain a
fermentation broth containing
indirubin. This invention, through a staged culture-mixed co-culture strategy, effectively solves key technical bottlenecks such as heavy metabolic burden of single strains, high
toxicity of the
intermediate product indole, and high production of the byproduct
indigo, achieving a shake-flask level yield of 163.34 mg / L of
indirubin, demonstrating good prospects for industrial application.